7th Year
by Rose's.wings
Summary: YYHxHP When Koenma sends the boys to fetch a group of runaway Ice Maidens, no one realizes how hard the task really is. It takes them from Makai all the way to school in Britain, where they realize that runaways are the least of their worries. After HP 7
1. Chapter 1: The Mission

7th Year

Chapter One: The Mission

"Koenma, I want those women back." The old woman demanded in a frozen voice. The seven hundred year old prince of the Spirit World shivered in his chair as the woman's slate colored eyes bored into him.

"Of course," Koenma said, pleased that his voice did not shake as much as he thought it would. "I will send the spirit detectives as soon as possible. We will inform you when we hear anything." The leader of the Ice Maidens continued to stare at him, and for an awful moment, Koenma thought she wasn't going to leave.

"Thank you for your cooperation Spirit Prince. I will leave everything to you now." With that, the old woman stood up and, in her usual dignified manner, exited Koenma's office.

Koenma slumped in his chair, letting out the breath he had been unconsciously holding in. For a moment he only sat there, reviewing in his head what the elderly Ice Maiden was asking of him. When he had it straightened out, he pushed a button on his desk.

"Botan? Please get Yusuke and the others as quickly as you can. Thank you." He released the button and rubbed his temples. Today was going to be a very long day.

*******

Yusuke Urameshi, Spirit World detective, was walking up Genkai's evil, giant staircase with Kazuma Kuwabara. School was out for the day and for some reason, Genkai had told them to come over today. Well, school wasn't actually over, it was only noon, and Genkai wasn't expecting them for a few more hours, but since they had nothing better to do, they were going to Genkai's.

They were almost there when Kuwabara looked up. "Hey," He said. "Isn't that Botan?"

Yusuke looked up too and saw the bright, pink speck against the pale, blue sky zooming towards Genkai's Temple. "Yeah, I think so. What's she doing here?"

"I don't know." Kuwabara said as they started climbing again. "Let's hurry up and get there so we can find out."

When they reached the top of the evil staircase, Yusuke saw a very anxious Botan talking to a very concerned looking Genkai. So, Yusuke called out to them.

"Hey basan! Botan! What're the long faces for?"

Genkai looked over at him. "Be quiet Yusuke. Koenma wants to see you. I suggest you go now and not make him wait. You go too Kuwabara." Then she turned around and went inside.

"Come on." Botan said. "Koenma sounded worried, we should hurry. Hinageshi is getting Kurama and Hiei. They should be there by the time we arrive." Botan's oar materialized in her hand and Yusuke and Kuwabara held on for dear life as she flew through the portal to Spirit World.

Yusuke tried not to hurl when they landed. "Jeez Botan, that was worse then Genkai's staircase!" Kuwabara nodded but didn't say anything. Yusuke had the feeling he was trying not to hurl too.

"Come on guys. I don't want to keep Koenma waiting." Botan pleaded.

Yusuke grinned mischievously. "Of course not Botan, We wouldn't want to keep your little boyfriend waiting." He started laughing.

BANG! BOP! BAM!

"This is no time for jokes Yusuke!" Botan yelled at him after she finished beating him with her oar. Her cheeks were flaming red, which was partly because she was so mad at him and partly because she blushing. "Now come on and hurry up!!!" She yelled back at them as she strode through the mess of scurrying ogres that were trying not to stare.

"Yes ma'am." Yusuke said weakly as Kuwabara started to laugh.

When Yusuke entered Koenma's office, he had three large bumps on his head and a downcast look on his face. Kurama was trying not to snicker as they came into the room. He, along with Hiei and Koenma, had heard everything that had happened because Yusuke and Botan had been so loud.

Koenma cleared his throat. "Are you two quite finished yet?"

Botan was standing huffily next to Koenma's desk, pretending Yusuke wasn't there. "Yes Koenma."

"Good. Then in that case I'll begin." He picked up the small remote on his desk and pointed it at the large TV screen on the wall in front of him. A picture of a stern looking old woman with slate grey eyes and grey hair stared back at them "This is the leader of the Ice Maidens." Koenma said clearly. "She came to me today demanding that I send you four to look for a group of young Ice Maidens who she said had 'poisoned' them. I told her that I would send you as soon as possible and also that we would send any information we received about them to her."

"Okay Koenma." Yusuke interrupted. "So where are we going?"

"Will you listen for once? I said 'as soon as possible.' We don't know where they are so I can't send you yet. So for right now I want all of you to keep your eyes and ears open in case they come to the human world."

Kuwabara stared blankly at him. "That's all?"

Koenma nodded. "For right now, yes. I'll let you know when we have an idea where they are."

"But Botan said you were freaking out. Is there a problem?" Kuwabara continued.

"No. It's just…" Koenma said as he closed his eyes. "She's a psycho! I swear she would freeze this whole entire place just because I refused her anything. She terrifies me!" He finished in a whine as he pointed up and the picture of the Ice Maiden leader. Yusuke started laughing until Botan smacked him over the head with her oar again, sending him to the floor. Then everybody else laughed as Yusuke sat there holding his head.

*******

That evening, Kurama, Yusuke, and Kuwabara were all tromping up Genkai's evil stairs. Hiei had left them behind to climb up by themselves, as usual. Yusuke was a few steps behind the other two, grumbling.

"Why couldn't she have dropped us off at the _top_ of the stairs?" He whined again.

"Maybe this will teach you not to make fun of Botan's feelings for Koenma." Kurama called over his shoulder.

"But I heard Keiko making fun of her about it just the other day and she didn't hit her. Or leave her at the bottom of basan's freaking stairs!" He all but yelled the last part.

Kuwabara shrugged his shoulders. "Well duh Urameshi, Keiko's a girl. Girls can talk to each other about stuff like that. But we can't because they would think we were just making fun of them, which you were."

Yusuke glared at Kuwabara. "And how would you know so much about what girls can and cannot talk about with guys? Huh?"

"Because Shizuru kicked my butt whenever she thought I was making fun of her when we were kids. And besides," Kuwabara added with a mean smile. "Your always such a pain anyway that it's no _wonder_ that Botan-"

"Shut up." Yusuke thwacked Kuwabara over the head, leaving a bump.

Kurama ignored them and kept climbing. He smiled to himself thinking about something else as Yusuke and Kuwabara started to bicker. Kurama just shrugged his shoulders and kept climbing.

This is probably why he reached the top a good fifteen minutes before the other two. He saw Genkai sitting on the porch waiting for them.

"Good evening Kurama." She said calmly as she sipped her tea. "The others are already waiting inside. Where are the dimwits?"

"They should be here in a few minutes, unless they've fallen back to the bottom. (What Kurama didn't know was that Yusuke and Kuwabara were just then starting their re-re-climb.)

Kurama entered Genkai's home and saw that most of his friends were already there, so all they had to wait for was Yusuke and Kuwabara. Thankful for a shorter wait then he had expected Kurama sat next to Lavena in the corner.

Eventually, Yusuke and Kuwabara did make it to Genkai's, but by then it had started to rain and they grumbled as they dried off with towels that Yukina brought them.

"Okay Genkai, what do you want?" Yusuke asked as he wrung the rain out of his hair.

Genkai calmly sat down wit her tea. She took a long sip before answering her former student. "Nothing, I didn't call you hear." She told him cryptically, looking forward to Yusuke's reaction.

Yusuke, who was already in a bad mood because of having to climb Genkai's stairs _three_ times in one day, Botan's own black mood, and now the rain (which had soaked him through and through), was really in no mood for Genkai's tricks. "What do you mean you didn't ask us to come here?! It's your house, if you didn't call us then who did?"

Kurama and Lavena smiled at each other.

"We did."

Everyone looked over at two in surprise. "You guys?" Yusuke asked. "Well, what is it?" He said in a slightly snappish tone, but no one really paid attention to that.

In fact, Lavena's smile grew bigger as she took Kurama's hand and said, "Guys, we're getting married!"

The room exploded in smiles and congratulations, immediately erasing any darker feelings. Lavena was surrounded by her friends, who were all, trying to ask her questions at the same time.

"When did he ask you?"

"Have you already started planning?"

"When's the wedding?"

Lavena held out her hands. "Wait a minute. Wait a minute. I can't answer you all at once. There's only one of me and five of you!" The girls slowed down and Lavena's good friend Emi repeated the last question.

"Hopefully May 1st." Lavena answered excitedly.

"Ahhhh," Emi said. "On taian. I thought you too didn't believe in those silly superstitions."

Lavena smiled. "No, I don't, but I don't mind having a little extra luck if it's true either. Besides," She added as an afterthought. "My mother and Shiori believe in it and they're going to be helping me with the planning and this taian is on Tuesday."

"Tuesday?" Keiko asked raising one of her eyebrows. "What's so special about Tuesday?"

"Nothing really. I just like Tuesday. But then again, I also like Thursdays and Fridays. Oh well, I'm just hoping that everything will work out alright."

*******

Fortunately, everything did work out. The weather decided to cooperate in a beautiful fashion. The sun was shining, but it was still cool enough to be comfortable. _'That's a good thing.'_ Lavena thought to herself as she looked at her reflection in the mirror. She was all ready. Her hair was coiled and braided on top of her head with small, pink flowers placed throughout. Her floor length, white dress hid her legs and feet in its soft folds and her veil, kept in place with a small, silver tiara at the top of her head, floated gently down her back.

"You look beautiful." Her mother said from behind her.

Lavena looked at herself again. She felt beautiful. Although she hoped she never had to wear this dress again. Apart from the fact that she wanted to be happily married for the rest of her life, the dress was darn heavy.

With one last look to make sure nothing was wrong with her appearance, Lavena turned around and took her place outside the closed doors of the Sanctuary. Her stomach was full of lively butterflies as the wedding march started and she gripped her bouquet tighter. She walked steadily up the aisle unaccompanied since her dad had died in a car accident shortly before she and her mother had moved to Japan. When she reached the front, the music stopped and the preacher began to speak. As he finished leading the guests in the opening hymn and started to read 1st Corinthians chapter 13, Lavena thought to herself how much faster the ceremony had seemed during rehearsal. Finally, after what felt like a slow moving eternity, Lavena and Kurama recited their vows and said, "I do."

As they both kneeled before the Alter for the blessing, Lavena felt relieved that Yusuke and Kuwabara hadn't done something stupid. She was worried for awhile that they were going to play some awful trick on them. She had seen them whispering together in a conspiring way. But it looked like everything would be fine.

That's when she noticed the snickers coming from those two dimwits.

But she couldn't see anything wrong, so she did her best to ignore them. She paid attention to the preacher and blocked them out of her mind. Then she rose from her knees as the preacher finished his blessing and declared them man and wife. Things were moving quicker now, she thought somewhere in the back of her mind as she received her wedding kiss. Then she took her new husband's arm and walked back up the aisle.

*******

The reception afterward was much more causal then the actual ceremony, but then again it was basically a party. Shortly after cake, the newlyweds noticed that Yusuke and Kuwabara were in the corner laughing.

"Do we want to know?" Lavena asked as they waded through the people to their seats.

"Probably not, but I have a feeling we'll find out anyway." Kurama said as their mothers came up to them.

Kurama's mother, Shiori, was trying not to smile. "Shuichi, do you realize that you have something written on the bottom of your shoes?" She asked placing a hand over her mouth to hide her smile.

"No I don't, and I probably don't want to know that I do." Kurama replied looking over at Yusuke and Kuwabara. "So I think I'll just stand up for the rest of the evening so that I don't ever realize that two of my friends wrote 'Help save me' on the bottom of my shoes." Both his and Lavena's mother laughed a little.

"Don't worry about it." Ms. Skylark told her new son-in-law. "I remember once when-"

"Excuse me!" Botan said loudly from behind Lavena and Kurama, making her friends jump.

"I'm sorry," She said with a slightly nervous look on her face. "But I need to speak with Ku-uh Shuichi for a moment. Would you please excuse us, we'll be right back." Then she practically dragged Kurama away to the spot were Yusuke and Kuwabara were standing. The three ladies watched for a minute as Botan began to talk to the three guys, but then they were distracted by their friends who came to chat. They didn't see the guys shocked and angered reactions to what Botan told them and they certainly didn't see them fall unsuspectingly through the large, dark hole that suddenly appeared beneath their feet.


	2. Chapter 2: Move It!

7th Year

Autumnaura- Thanks for the review and you were right, its spelled Botan.

Chapter Two: Move It!

"KOENMA! YOU JERK!!!!"

The small prince looked up terrified from his mountain of paperwork just in time to see a furious Lavena blast open the doors that led to his office.

"Where the heck have you sent Kurama?!" She yelled as she lifted Koenma up by his collar, bringing him level with her eyes.

"Where did you send him?" She demanded in a low voice that scared Koenma even more then her furious yelling.

"Lavena!" An out of breath Botan came running through the door way after livid vixen.

"Lavena _please_ put him down. It won't help if you shake him until he's unconscious." She added quickly as Lavena started shaking the small prince demanding to know where he had sent Kurama the night before.

Eventually, Botan calmed her friend down enough so that she dropped Koenma unceremoniously into his chair just before dropping into one herself.

Everything was quiet for a moment as Lavena rubbed her temples trying to prevent her oncoming headache and Koenma tried to reorient himself with reality.

It was, of course Botan, who first broke the silence.

"Ummm? Koenma sir? Are you alright?" Koenma sat up and slightly shook his head.

"Yes, I'm fine. Thank you Botan." He said wearily as he turned his attention to Lavena. "Are you better now?" He asked as she straightened herself.

She breathed in and nodded.

Koenma looked at her again more closely. "You're not going to cry, are you?"

She shook her head vigorously, which meant 'yes' she was. Koenma sighed, and then cautiously started to explain.

*******

Meanwhile, Lavena was not the only one who was upset.

"That stupid little pacifier sucker!" Yusuke was yelling as he crashed through the thick undergrowth of Makai.

"You'd think that he could wait at _least_ a couple of days before sending us to look for these runaways! And I have had it with these stupid bushes!" He suddenly held out his figure and yelled, "Spirit Gun!" causing a path to open up in front of them. Yusuke grinned when he saw how far his spirit gun had gone. Destroying plants for almost no reason seemed to cheer Yusuke up a little.

If it had been any other time, Kurama would have thought it slightly funny that Yusuke was throwing such a big fit instead of himself.

Of course, Kurama was also smarter enough not to start screaming in a dark and dangerous forest in the middle of Makai. So instead, he fumed behind the rest of his friends and tried to keep his ears and eyes open.

It wasn't long before Hiei stopped, letting the others pass him.

Kurama turned around. "What is it Hiei?" He asked quietly.

"We're here." Hiei pointed out. Yusuke and Kuwabara were still walking loudly, not noticing that their two demon friends had stopped.

"Yusuke! Kuwabara! We're here." Kurama called after them. "Let's get this over with as soon as possible." Then he and Hiei started to walk down the small street with houses on either side. Both of them reached out, looking for the cool distinctive feeling of an Ice Maiden's energy.

"There." Kurama said when he came to the last house on the small street. By then, Yusuke and Kuwabara had caught up, and they all approached the old wooden door. Yusuke knocked loudly and waited for the woman to answer.

When she did, she peaked through the door, and then quickly snapped it shut again.

Yusuke swore and threw his shoulder at the door, breaking it. He and Kuwabara ran after her, while Kurama and Hiei jumped over the roof to land in front of the young woman behind her house.

"I'm sorry miss, but you have to come with us." Kurama said softly.

Cautiously, the Ice Maiden stepped forward and Kurama placed one of the bracelets Botan had given them on her wrist. The bracelet shone, and then the Ice Maiden disappeared as it transported her back to Koenma's office.

"Well," Yusuke said. "That's one down. This shouldn't take too long if they all go as fast as that."

*******

Two months later, Yusuke, Kuwabara, Kurama, and Hiei had found and captured all but one of the missing Ice Maidens. The last one had completely evaded them in a little village out on the edge of nowhere and, finally, Koenma was calling it quits and they were going home.

"Well this stinks." Kuwabara said as they reached Reikai. "We completely missed out on our summer vacation."

Yusuke had a stronger opinion which was not appropriate for even some of the more mature readers out there.

"Perfect!" He shouted as they made their way to Koenma's office. "We're off chasing runaways all summer and get back just in time for school."

"At least it's our senior year." Kuwabara said, trying to look at the bright side. Well, brighter then what Yusuke was looking at anyway.

By now they had reached the huge gold doors that led to Koenma's office. Their little boss was not sitting behind his desk like usual. Instead he was pacing in front of it muttering to himself.

"Where are the-You're here!! About time, now hurry up and get ready to leave!!" Koenma started yelling at them when they entered the room.

His words were met with blank stares.

"What?" Yusuke asked. "What d'ya mean leave? We just got here!" Obviously, the prospect of leaving before he even got home angered him even more then wasting the summer working without pay and then going back to school.

"We've found the last Ice Maiden. She's going to be in Britain for a teaching job on the first of September. Botan will drop you off their and explain everything else on the way."

"What about clothes and stuff?" Kuwabara asked.

"Already packed." Koenma waved his hand dismissively and continued on. "Now you don't have to actually stay at this school, by the way, but you will have to ride the train that the students use to reach it. Then when you get there you can get the Ice Maiden and leave before anyone realizes that your there. Good-bye and good luck!" Before any of them could argue anymore, a hole opened up beneath their feet and transported them to a train platform where Botan was waiting.


	3. Chapter 3: The Train

7th Year

Chapter Three: The Train

"Remind me why we have to take a train there again?" Yusuke asked snarkily as he, Kuwabara, and Kurama all climbed on board the large, red train called the Hogwarts Express. Hiei had ever so politely declined to ride a train filled with, as he called the students, a bunch of noisy brats.

"Because," Kuwabara answered. "Koenma isn't able to get a stable portal to the school since it's protected by something or other, he didn't say what. And I don't know about you, but I would much rather get there in one piece instead of, like, just a head or something."

"Whatever." Yusuke said as he put his hands behind his head and looked around the empty corridor for the way to the baggage car.

"I just wish we could get seats." Kuwabara put in as they took a left and entered the dark room. Botan had explained to them after the boys arrived at the train station that, because they weren't actually going to the school, they weren't actually supposed to be on the train, so they had to hide somewhere where no one would see them. Next thing they knew she was on her oar waving at them cheerily and flying away, probably trying to avoid any violent outbursts.

"Well, here we are." Kuwabara said as he sat down on someone's trunk and tried to make him self comfortable for the long ride.

"I still say we should join Hiei on top of the train." Yusuke muttered as he found a spot big enough for him to lie down in.

"Yes," Kurama spoke up from the corner. "It would be much better until you were pushed off by the wind and lack of hand holes."

Yusuke was quiet after that. All summer Kurama had focused on finding the Ice Maidens so that he and the others could go home as soon as possible, but being sent to Britain straight after they got back was breaking the last shred of patience he had.

The train's whistle broke their silence and making Kuwabara slightly jump. Then he snapped his fingers.

"Hey guys I think I have some cards, you wanna play BS or something?" Kuwabara asked as he pulled an old deck of cards out of his pocket.

Yusuke sat up as the train started to move. "Sure, it's not like we don't have time. How about you Kurama?"

Kurama sighed. "Fine." He said and slid over to the box Kuwabara had put the cards on.

*******

"Ah man!" Yusuke cried as Kuwabara won, again! They had been playing War for nearly an hour and a half by now and Kuwabara had won every game they had played. Go figure.

"What is it Urameshi? Not used to being beat?" Kuwabara laughed hysterically. Kurama allowed himself a small smile. Even though they were miles away from home and they still had to find the last girl in order to get Koenma off there backs, Yusuke and Kuwabara still managed to act like idiots.

Yusuke stood up, frustrated. "I'm going to find the bathroom." He said angrily, and then left the baggage car.

Kuwabara looked over at Kurama, shuffling the cards in his hand. "So you want to play again Kurama?" He asked cheerfully.

Kurama shrugged. "Sure," He said as he took Yusuke's spot and waited for Kuwabara to deal. After Kuwabara had handed out all the cards, Yusuke ran back into the room and shut the door behind him with a bang. Kurama took in his white face and freaked out look and figured out what had happened.

"Someone saw you, didn't they?" He asked calmly.

Yusuke nodded. "I accidentally told them that we were foreign exchange students and the kid went to go get some adult named Hermione."

Kuwabara started laughing. "Wow Urameshi, since when are you afraid of adults?"

"Since these adults might actually think I was telling the truth." Yusuke said angrily as he raised his fist.

Kurama sighed. "Really Yusuke, it's nothing to worry about."

Yusuke looked over at the red headed fox. "Yeah, how do you figure that?"

"Well," Kurama said thoughtfully. "Schools have a list of who is coming to there school as an exchange student. So since we will _not_ be on Hogwarts exchange list, we can say we simply got on the wrong train or something similar. Then, once we have gotten the last Ice Maiden, we can leave and they'll think that we've gone to our real exchange school."

Yusuke calmed down after he thought about Kurama's explanation. "Okay," He said. "As long as they don't really think that we're actually going to go their school, I'm okay."

"Yeah," Kuwabara grinned. "You don't even go to our real school. Why should you go to someone else's?"

"Why you-" Yusuke yelled and then he and Kuwabara started hitting each other, causing a cloud of dust to fly up from the ground.

Kurama sneezed when the dust started to rise. "Guys," He said, and then sneezed again. He tried again, calling louder.

"Guys!" He called, but then his nose twitched and he started sneezing harder.

Eventually he gave up and went to the farthest corner so he could escape the dust.

*******

Several hours later, the train pulled to a wheel squealing stop. Yusuke had won the earlier fight and Kuwabara had a black eye and quite a few bruises to show for it.

"Man Urameshi, what d'ya do that for. I was only kidding. Well, not really...but it was a joke, get over it." He said, touching his black eye.

Yusuke looked like he was ready to punch him again. "Well, maybe that will teach you not to say stupid things. Oh wait, I forgot you can't do that can you?"

Kurama stepped in between them in order to stop another fight.

"Let's just get out of this car, before people come to get their luggage." He said quietly, then opened the door and, seeing no one was out, quickly got off the train. Yusuke and Kuwabara both followed him to the side of the train that passengers were not using. They walked down the side of the train looking for Hiei, while also avoiding the students and few teachers that were on the other side of the red train.

"Hey!" Someone called from behind them. All three of them turned to see who it was. Standing there with her hands on her hips was an elderly woman wearing black robes with small spectacles perched on the tip of her nose. "What are you three doing here? You were supposed to get off on the other side. You know that." She started to walk forward in order to see which students she was talking to.

But Yusuke and the others decided that it wouldn't be good if some old lady thought they were students and dragged them off to that school. So they quickly walked away, trying to escape by going between the cars and blending in with the crowd on the other side.

Unfortunately, Yusuke (who was in front) ran into someone as soon as he got out from between the cars.

"Hey watch it." Yusuke said in his slightly broken English as he and the other dark haired boy fell to the ground.

"You watch it." A freckled face kid said as he helped his friend up.

"Excuse me." Said a stern voice from behind Yusuke. "But who are you and what are you doing here?"

Yusuke turned around to see the old lady that had been following them standing there.

"What?! How did you get there so fast?" He exclaimed as the lady eyeballed him, Kurama, and Kuwabara.

The old woman grinned almost mischievously. "Why I walked of course. Now," Then her face grew sterner. "Who are you three?"

"They're the exchange students Professor." The boy with black hair and glasses spoke up from where he and his friends were still standing.

At first the woman looked a little bewildered. "The exchange...? Oh yes!" She said at last, leaving Yusuke, Kurama, and Kuwabara to look at each other. "Yes. I'm sorry. You must be our new student teacher," She motioned to Kurama with a smile. "And you two must be the students from the Japanese University. It is a pleasure to meet you all." She said as she bowed to all three of them.

Yusuke exchanged a look with Kurama, leaving Kuwabara to figure out if he should bow back to the woman. They both saw the confusion in the other's eyes, so neither of them had arranged this. Kuwabara wouldn't know how. That left...

"Hiei." They both whispered and looked toward the top of the train, where they saw a subtle shadow flit off into the darkness.

"_He's probably smirking at our misfortunes as well."_ Kurama thought to himself as he put on a smile for the Professor.

"Yes," He lied smoothly. "I am Shuichi Minamino and these are my friends Yusuke Urameshi and Kazuma Kuwabara." He pointed to his friends as he introduced them. Fortunately, neither bothered to point out that they had no idea what the woman was talking about.

"It is very nice to meet all three of you. Now, I'm afraid that I have to help the younger children to the school. Perhaps Mr. Potter, Mr. Weasley, and Miss Granger can show you the way?" She looked over at the dark haired young man, his friend with freckles and reddish hair, and a young woman who had just joined them.

"Yes Professor." The one that Yusuke had run over said unenthusiastically. His two friends looked worriedly at each other over his head.

"Uhhh...thanks." Kuwabara said as the other three began to walk away from the train. When they were a safe distance behind their guides, Kuwabara started to whisper to Yusuke.

"Well thanks Urameshi." Kuwabara muttered darkly. "Now they think we're really going to stay here _all year_."

"It's not my fault!" Yusuke whispered harshly back. "How was I supposed to know that that kid was going to tell that lady? Or that we'd get caught?"

"It's probably a good thing that Hiei stepped in and altered her memory a little bit so that she would think that we are exchange students." Kurama spoke up softly. "Now we don't have to worry so much about people seeing us when we look for the last Maiden."

"Yeah, I guess so." Yusuke grumbled as he kicked a rock that was on the path. "But I also noticed that Hiei didn't include himself in his little "exchange student" memory, and we're not going to be here that long anyway. So there really is no point in them noticing us at all. It'll just become a problem later when we leave."

Kurama sighed. Yusuke was right about that, but hopefully Hiei could alter the teachers and students memories again so they could leave quietly.

"Well, we'll just have to deal with that later Yusuke. First, let's just find the Ice Maiden." Kurama said, getting nods from the others.

"Here we are." The young woman called from up ahead. Kurama looked up to see a carriage attached to a pair of demon horses.

"What the...?" Kuwabara and Yusuke said at the same time.

Kurama realized with a start where they must really be. "I don't think we're at an ordinary school guys." He said softly.

"Gee, what gave you that idea?" Yusuke whispered back.

"No," Kurama said. "What I mean is that this is a _magic_ school. I remember learning about such schools and that they also sometimes used creatures that were more demon then magic."

"You mean those things." Kuwabara asked slowly.

Yusuke gave him a look. "No Kuwabara he means the carriages. Of course he means the horses!"

"Hey are you guys coming or what?" The freckled faced kid called from the carriage.

"We're coming." Yusuke called then said to Kurama and Kuwabara, "We'll talk about this later." The other two nodded their heads and followed Yusuke into the carriage.

*******

The ride to the school was uneventful and unnervingly quiet. Kurama was glad when the carriage finally stopped in front of the large front doors of the castle that served as the school.

Yusuke whistled when he saw the ancient stone structure. "Wow," He said. "And I thought that your school was fancy Kurama."

"Yeah," Kuwabara agreed as he craned his neck back to see the top of the towers.

"Come on," The brunette said as she jumped out of the carriage. "The Great Hall is this way." She pointed up the stairs to the huge wood doors that led to the inside of the castle.

"So," The girl said when the three "exchange" students caught up to her and the others. "You're from Japan?" She asked trying to dispel the awkward silence that was trying to take hold.

"Hai." Yusuke said staring straight ahead.

"Well," The girl said nervously seeing that the conversation, if you could call it that, was going absolutely nowhere. "My name's Hermione Granger and this is Ron Weasley and Harry Potter."

Yusuke pretended not to hear her and kept walking.

Kurama sighed. "I'm sorry, he isn't very social. I'm Shuichi Minamino and this is Kazuma Kuwabara and you've already met Yusuke."

She looked annoyed as she answered yes. "Anyway," She continued. "Please tell us if you need anything. What class are you helping to teach, by the way?"

For a moment Kurama simply looked at her, and then he remembered that Hiei had seen it fit to make him a student teacher instead of just a student.

"Oh, well I am very good with plants." Kurama said, not quite answering her question.

"Really? I think you would probably like talking with Neville then. He loves things like that. And I'm sure Professor Sprout would love your help."

"Thank you." Kurama said politely. "So do you know where our rooms will be or has that not been decided yet?"

"I think that you'll have to be sorted with all the first years. That's how everyone else gets there rooms, by being sorted into a house." Hermione gave him a sideways look. "Don't you know anything about Hogwarts? Or were you just randomly sent here?" Kurama was sure that that last part was supposed to be a joke, but since she had said it...

"Yes." Kurama smiled at her shocked face. "Since there are too many students from our school that wish to visit other schools, our principle has us draw names out of a hat so that the process is fair."

Ron Weasley gaped at him. "Are you serious?" He asked.

Kurama nodded. "Why would I joke?" He said, and then he smiled at them before catching up with his friends.

"I don't think I like them." Ron said to Hermione after Kurama left.

"Well, we can't do anything except watch them. But if they do anything strange we'll tell Professor McGonagall."

Ron snorted. "Like she'd ever listen to us."

"She would if we thought they might be after Harry." Hermione whispered harshly. "Just because Voldemort is dead doesn't mean that his followers aren't going to go after Harry."

Ron looked at the three strangers again. "You don't think-"

"I don't know." Hermione admitted. "But since Harry is so out of it we need to keep a closer watch on anyone we think might have worked for Voldemort, especially those three."

Ron nodded then followed her into the Great Hall with Harry shuffling in behind them.

"You guys are supposed to stay here." Hermione told the exchange students as they tried to follow them into the Hall.

The guy with dark slicked back hair looked at them. "Why?"

Hermione sighed. It was like dealing with first years. "Because you two haven't been sorted yet," Hermione pointed to the two younger boys. "And I don't know about you since you're basically a teacher." She quickly turned around and followed her friends to their table.

"Whatever." Yusuke said once Hermione was out of ear shot. "It's like she's Keiko's twin sister." He leaned back against the wall to settle in for the most likely long wait.

It wasn't actually that long before a professor should up and started explaining things to the scared first years and the bored exchange students.

"Of course we're last." Yusuke said frustrated and threw his hands up in the air. The professor had just mentioned that they would be going after all of the first years. Kurama looked out over the sea of black robed kids and sighed. Even though he was supposed to be a teacher, he had to go through the whole sorting as well. Apparently, the emphasis was on student teacher, since he couldn't just choose a room or something.

After they had stood there for what felt like an hour, the professor came back and told them that it was their turn to be sorted.

"About time." Yusuke said and followed him into the large Hall.

As they walked between the two middle tables, Kurama noticed that a seat was empty at the Professor's table. He suddenly got a very bad feeling about that they wouldn't be able to go home as quickly as they had thought.

The sorting went much faster then Kurama had thought it would. Yusuke and Kuwabara were both placed in Gryffindor, while Kurama was put in Ravenclaw. They had all been seated when the same woman that had tried to stop them at the train station got up and welcomed every back. Kurama distractedly listened to Headmistress McGonagall as he looked around room, hoping to see the last Ice Maiden.

"One more thing," The headmistress said as she finished. "Our new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher won't be here for another few days, so in the meantime..." Kurama stopped listening altogether when he heard that. He looked over at Yusuke and Kuwabara and saw their looks of astonishment.

They were stuck here until the Ice Maiden showed up.

Joy.


	4. Chapter 4: Letters and Shadows

7th Year

Chapter Four: Letters and Shadows

A few days later, Lavena went to Genkai's temple to talk to Yukina.

"I still can't believe he did that." Lavena said to her friend as they sat on Genkai's porch drinking tea. Yukina dutifully nodded her head as she had done the last fifty times after Lavena had said the exact same thing.

"He won't even tell me where he is." Lavena continued, oblivious to the fact that she was ranting. "He keeps saying I'm too inexperienced, too ignorant of how to use my energy. What does he think I've been doing all this time since I found out I was a half demon?" She exclaimed, nearly spilling her tea as she flung her arms over her head in frustration.

Yukina deftly steadied the cup before it fell and spilled its contents all over the floor. "I'm sure that Koenma is as stressed over this as you are." She said, trying to calm her friend.

Lavena gave a short bark of a laugh. "Yeah, because I'm the one that's making him so stressed out." She stared out at Genkai's forest and started to sulk.

Yukina sighed. Lavena had been like this almost all summer. Occasionally, she went up to the Spirit World to yell at Koenma, but so far it hadn't done any good. She was just as clueless as to where Kurama and the others had gone as she had been at the beginning of summer.

Botan suddenly landed in front of them.

"Good morning girls!" She said cheerfully as her oar disappeared. "Isn't it a beautiful-"She abruptly stopped when she saw Lavena's sour face. "Day?" She finished in a small voice. "Uhhh, I have a letter for you Yukina." Botan said nervously and handed the other blue haired girl a small envelope with what appeared to be chicken scratch written on it.

"Thank you Botan." Yukina said as she opened the envelope. Inside was more chicken scratch with a signature at the bottom of the letter. "It's from Kazuma." She told her friends as she began to read.

When she was done she looked over at Lavena.

"Here Lavena," She handed the letter over. "You'll probably want to read this."

Lavena looked at her questioningly. "Why would I want to read something Kuwabara wrote?" She asked as she took the piece of paper, but started reading nonetheless. A few moments later she stopped and a look of absolute joy spread across her face.

"I'm going to Britain!!!" She yelled, startling both her friends, who quickly tried to cover their ears.

"What? Lavena wait," Botan cried when she realized what Lavena had said.

But Lavena had already dashed to her room to pack her things. Yukina and Botan could hear her singing and occasionally squeaking to herself.

"What's the matter Botan?" Yukina asked when Botan groaned.

"Lord Koenma doesn't want Lavena to leave the city, much less the country." She said as she sat down. "He wants to keep an eye on her in case another demon tries to kidnap her again to gain the power that the Ultimate being gave her."

Yukina looked back down the hall where Lavena was still singing. "What if you and I went with her?" She asked. "We could help out Kazuma and his friends with their mission as well as watching out for Lavena. Maybe I could even help them by finding the Ice Maiden they're looking for.

Botan thought about it. "Yes," She said acting more like her normal cheery self. "That would work. If anything happened to Lavena, or even to any of the others, I could fly right back to Lord Koenma and tell him. This way, everyone's happy." She cried and threw out her arms and gave Yukina a huge hug.

"Oh, Yukina you're a genius!" She cried and smiled from ear to ear as she let go of her friend and held her at arms length to look at her.

"Th-thank you Botan." Yukina stammered, surprised by her friends sudden actions.

Suddenly Botan backed up. "I'd still better tell Lord Koenma what's going on though, so I'll be right back." She quickly hopped on her oar and flew off into the midmorning sky with a bright, "See ya later!"

Yukina sat down and let out a sigh. Sometimes her friends could be very strange. Still, it would be nice to see Kazuma and his friends again. Although she would have to tell Master Genkai that she would be leaving, and there were a few other things to take care of before she left.

"Okay, I'm ready!" Lavena cried pulling a suitcase that looked like it was about to explode with her. Yukina turned to look at Lavena.

"And packing is one of them." She said to herself.

"Huh?" Lavena asked.

Yukina smiled. "Oh, nothing, I was just talking to myself." She stood up and went inside. "I'm going to go pack. Tell me when Botan gets back." She called the last sentence over her shoulder and Lavena assured her that she would, and then she sat down on the porch to wait.

*******

Several time zones away, Kurama was working by the light of a small, gently glowing plant as he sat in his assigned room. He was thankful that student teachers here received their own rooms, so he didn't have to sleep in the student dormitories. He looked up from what he was doing and glanced out the window. He sighed. It was roughly 2 in the morning, but he hadn't been able to sleep because at home it would be about 10 a.m. He sighed a second time. It appeared it would be hard adjusting to the radically different time zone here in Britain. He silently began to tinker with Yusuke's broken communicator. It had gotten smashed in his pocket while he and Kuwabara had been rough housing on the train and Kurama was doing his best to repair it, even though he didn't know a single thing about it. He yawned and rubbed his eyes, then went back to working on the small compact mirror.

The next thing he knew, he was awaken by someone pounding on his door. He looked down at his watch, and then remembered that it didn't work here. He yawned and stretched his stiff neck, realizing that he had fallen asleep after patching up Yusuke's communicator.

"Hey Kurama are you awake?" Called the person who had been pounding on the door.

Well speak of the devil. Kurama thought to himself as he got up to open the door and admit his friends.

"What is it Yusuke?" Kurama asked in a slightly drowsy tone.

Yusuke was smirking slightly to himself at the slight of the mussed up fox. "I guess someone just got up." He snickered, causing Kurama to give him a hard look.

Yusuke just shrugged it off. "I was just coming to tell you that you're going to miss breakfast if you don't hurry, and that the new professor isn't here yet and according to one of the other teachers, she probably won't be here for a couple of weeks."

Kurama grimaced. He honestly did not want to be here that long. "Thanks Yusuke, I'll be down in a minute." He closed the door before Yusuke could give him any more unwelcome news.

Kurama quickly changed and went to find breakfast in the Great Hall. He barely made it in time to snatch a piece of toast before heading to the greenhouse where Professor Sprout was expecting him.

Despite the fact that Kurama would rather be anywhere else, he found the class he was helping to 'teach' very interesting. He had never had the chance to thoroughly study the human wizard's flora. The wizarding community was one of the more secretive circles in the human world so, seeing as how he couldn't get out of it anyway, Kurama planned to take advantage of this little glimpse into their society.

It was around the middle of the morning that Kurama saw that the three students who had shown Yusuke, Kuwabara, and him to the school were standing at the end of the table, talking amongst themselves in hushed voices. There seemed to be something different about the boy in the middle. He didn't look that different from the other students except...

Kurama's eyes widened a fraction of an inch. Except he had traces of demonic energy surrounding him. Kurama reached out with his own senses to see if there was indeed another demon nearby, but all he could find were his friends.

"Hey!" A voice suddenly called loudly near his ear. Kurama looked over to see another boy staring at him, probably another seventh year.

"Yes, Mr. Longbottom?" It took him a moment to remember the student's name.

Neville Longbottom gave his new 'student teacher' a look full of suspicion. Kurama could tell that he was wondering why he had been watching Mr. Potter. From what Botan had told him and the others before she left them at the station, Harry Potter was the young man who had defeated a Lord Voldemort. She had also said that Voldemort had been an incredibly powerful dark wizard that could've probably taken on a lower class demon and survived. However, he had been defeated earlier this year by Harry Potter, although from his friend's actions, they were still worried about his supporters at the moment.

"You're from Japan aren't you?" Neville asked as he went back to his work.

"Yes," Kurama answered not looking up from his own assignment.

It was silent for a moment, and then Neville started speaking again, just not in English.

"Why are you watching Harry?" He asked quietly, so only Kurama could hear.

"You speak Japanese very well Mr. Longbottom. Where did you learn it?" Kurama asked casually, never looking up at his 'student'.

Neville refused to look up as well. "My great aunt lives in Japan. My Gran and I go to see her at least once every year, so they both thought it would be wise for me to learn how to speak Japanese. Why are you watching Harry?" He asked again, his tone was so normal it was like he had just continued speaking about his family.

Kurama continued to ignore his question. "And you actually learned the old fashioned way? You don't use a charm?" Kurama was pleasantly surprised that this young wizard had not used the easiest solution to his problem. He had expected most of the children here to be like the pampered brats that he was used to being classmates with at college. It was an excellent school that was mostly attended by higher class children that usually didn't have a brain in their rich little heads.

Neville just shrugged at Kurama's question. "My Gran and Great Aunt thought it would be better if I learned at least most of it myself. Now," He said sternly and finally met the eyes of his curious 'teacher'. "What do you want with Harry?"

Kurama realized from stubborn look on his face that Neville was not going to drop the subject. "Nothing," He answered simply and watched as Neville narrowed his eyes in disbelief.

"What do you mean nothing?"

Kurama's green eyes bored into Neville's blue ones as he spoke. "My friends and I do not want Harry Potter." He emphasized the latter half of the sentence to make sure that Mr. Longbottom got the gist of what he was saying.

Neville stared at him for a moment longer then turned back to his work with a small nod.

Kurama hoped that Neville would tell the other Harry Potter Protectors that he believed the new student teacher was telling the truth. The last thing he or the others needed was a bunch of seventeen year olds watching their every move.

*******

Later that night, the Forbidden Forest was silent. There wasn't a sound for miles as if all the creatures had just picked up and left. The only thing that moved was the shadows. One in particular slithered across the ground, acting more like a living thing instead of just a place that the moon light didn't reach. It slunk across the dead leaves that seemed to permanently litter the forest floor as it made its way to its hideaway. However, the leaves that rustled in the slightest gust of wind made no sound as it passed over them.

Soon, the black splotch arrived at the abandoned rabbit burrow that it was using as its residence for the time being. It slid down, like mud that was pouring through a hole, and plopped down inside. Its insides started to squirm and wriggle like ink that was being squished in a plastic bag, until things that resembled a head and limbs were stretched out of its new torso like clay. Now the black splotch resembled a creature somewhere between a snake and a turtle, including gleaming red eyes that had appeared on its new head. Quickly, it scuttled off in a bug like fashion down the short hallway until it reached the main chamber.

"_So, the fox demon sensed my energy on the boy, did he?"_ The shadow demon thought to himself as settled down in the main chamber for sleep. _"Well, that will make it harder for me to play with the young wizard."_ It smiled evilly to itself as it shifted into a black blotch once more. After its wriggling stopped, its smirk left and it began to think seriously about what the former spirit detectives' presence meant.

"_They will make it harder for me to collect the items."_ It thought angrily, causing its gelatinous form to ripple like dark water on an old pond, and then it smoothed its wrinkles decisively.

"_No! They could not know that I am here."_ It told itself firmly. _"They must be here for the missing ice witch. They won't know that I'm here until after they leave, and by then it will be too late."_ It muttered the last part to itself like a twisted version of a lullaby and eventually fell asleep, its words still hanging in the air.


	5. Chapter 5: Numb

7th Year

Chapter Five: Numb

About a week after Neville had spoken with Student Professor Minamino, he, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, and Harry were discussing whether they could trust that he wasn't after Harry. Well, actually Harry wasn't discussing anything. He was hardly listening to his friends talk. He vaguely registered that Neville kept saying that there was something familiar about the three new comers, but he couldn't remember what it was. If he had been feeling more like himself, Harry would have thought it was funny that Neville, who had led Dumbledore's Army when Harry had left to find and destroy the Horcruxes, who had sliced off Nagini's head like it wasn't even there, _still_ couldn't remember _anything_. But Harry wasn't feeling like himself. He felt...numb. He just felt absolutely nothing and he didn't even know why. Some small part of him thought that it was strange that he felt _nothing_, but that voice sounded very far away most of the time.

"Hey Harry, you okay?" The person next to him asked worriedly. He dragged himself back from nowhere and saw that dinner was finished and everyone else was standing up to go back to the common room.

"Yeah, I'm fine." He said flatly as he stood up to follow them. His friends looked at him with concerned faces, even though he didn't notice.

"It's so unfair that we have to redo a whole year of school." Ginny complained, trying to start at least a semi-normal conversation. "It's not our fault that Voldemort messed up the school last year."

"Well it's important that we do finish our education." Hermione put in as someone told the fat lady the password and she swung open.

"How did I know that you were going to say something like that?" Ron said as he stepped in. "I suppose running around the country and destroying powerful magical objects doesn't make up for missing a good year of school?" He smiled at her and she realized that he was teasing. Then he looked up and saw that Harry was already heading up the dormitory stairs.

"Where are you going Harry?" He asked before his friend disappeared from sight.

"To bed." Harry said dully then vanished behind the dorm door.

*******

As Harry's friends began to talk in concerned voices about what was bothering him, a portal was opening up halfway round the world.

"It's about time Koenma let us leave." Lavena grumbled as the dark vortex became larger. Both she and the two other blue haired girls standing next to her had large trunks packed with clothes and supplies sitting at their feet, waiting to accompany them through the portal that Koenma had set up for them. The little Spirit Prince had also given them a letter, supposedly from the Headmaster of the Japanese University of Magic although they had all watched as Koenma had forged the signature, as well as everything else a student would be expected to have when going to school, including an owl for Botan that would be able to carry messages to the Spirit World seeing as their communicators wouldn't work at the school.

"Botan," Yukina asked softly as they waited for the portal to finish growing. "Why do we need all these things if we're not going to stay the whole year? I thought we were only staying long enough to find the missing Ice Maiden?" She looked curiously up at Botan, who was giggling nervously and rubbing the back of her head.

"Uhhh," The ferry girl fumbled for an explanation that other prying ears might believe. "It's just a precaution. We don't want the teachers at the school to wonder why we say we're exchange students, but we didn't bring anything student like with us. You wouldn't show up empty handed at school would you?" She asked still laughing for no reason.

"No, I suppose not." Yukina answered, still not completely satisfied with Botan's answer.

Botan didn't seem to notice the small woman's uncertainty. Instead she was thinking that she should have thought of an excuse earlier then this.

"_Yukina and Lavena are so easy to read, making it easy for spies to know what's going on if they know what's going on. Oh, and Koenma has already stressed that we're not to even hint at any Spirit World business in case someone else is watching us, like he thinks. He's right of course, but it doesn't make any sense as to why another demon besides the Ice Maiden would be hiding in the Forbidden Forest, and it makes even less to think that someone else might be after the poor woman besides the Ice Leader. Oh, the boys are not going to be happy that they might have to stay at this castle for a little while more, or maybe a lot while more."_ Botan tried hard to not giggle nervously in front of the other girls, especially when she hadn't been saying anything out loud. Darn nervous habits. Maybe if she stopped giggling so much at her thoughts, the others wouldn't be able to tell she had bad news so often. Huh, maybe she wasn't a hard egg to crack either.

"Hey Botan!" Lavena's shout snapped the ferry girl out of her private thoughts. "The portal's ready, we can go now." The vixen was, understandably, anxious to go and had been in a nonstop hurry ever since she had read Yukina's letter. Botan sighed, hopefully for the last time in a good long while, as she followed her friends the swirling hole that would transport them almost instantly to the small wizarding village, Hogsmeade, where they would spend they night and then go up to the school the next morning.

*******

Kurama looked out the window as thunder started to rumble in the distance. The Great Hall had reflected his dismal mood with cloudy skies and several lighting flashes. He, Yusuke, and Kuwabara had been here for almost three weeks and still there was no sign of the Ice Maiden or as the other teachers were calling her, Professor D'ta. Come to think of it, they hadn't seen Hiei that much either. He seemed to be spending most of his time as far away from the school and its students as he could. The only reason Kurama knew he was still there was because of his frequent telepathic messages. Kurama had the distinctive suspicion that his friend was getting bored, a feeling that Kurama shared.

"_Not for long."_

Kurama stopped at Hiei's unexpected message, when someone behind him ran into him at full speed. They both fell to the ground in a heap. He had just enough time to register auburn hair and a small white starburst shaped scar just above the middle of her eyebrows before he was smothered by the first.

Kurama gratefully hugged his wife as he dimly noticed that the headmistress's shoes came to stand beside him.

"I hope I'm not interrupting anything?" Professor McGonagall said as she did her best to hide the surprise in her voice.

"No," Lavena said, craning her neck to look up at her new transfiguration professor. "I don't think so."

"Hi Kurama!" A cheery voice disrupted McGonagall's disapproving scowl.

The red head looked over to see Botan waving madly at him with Yukina grinning shyly behind her.

"I take it you two know each other." The grey haired woman looked over her spectacles as Kurama and Lavena managed to pick them selves off the floor.

"Yes," Kurama saw that Lavena couldn't seem to stop smiling. Come to think of it, neither could he. "This is my wife, Lavena Minamino." The shock on the elder woman's face was like a flash of light before she quickly turned it off again. She appeared to be at a loss for words.

Fortunately for her, Botan came up just then with Yukina following behind her. "Oh it's so nice to see you again Kurama, we haven't seen you in months." Botan smiled widely at her friends then turned to the Professor. "He had to go on a business trip shortly after their wedding last May, it was so sad. Lavena nearly drove us crazy." Botan laughed nervously as Lavena glared at her.

"I'm sorry," Professor McGonagall finally managed to force her voice out her mouth again. "I did not expect any of our student teachers to be married to anyone, much less to each other. Aren't your friends only a year or so younger then you?" She asked, clearly puzzled.

"Yes," Kurama said as he helped Lavena to her feet. "But they were held back a few years due to excessive absents."

"I see, well then," She turned towards her new arrivals deciding to wonder later why both boys would be absent enough to be held back nearly three times. "I will show the three of you your rooms and where you will be working and then let you rest until dinner. This way please." McGonagall briskly began to walk away, leaving the others to quickly say good bye to Kurama and catch up with her vigorous pace. She would never say it aloud, but she honestly hoped that the next person she had to lead to their rooms was their actual teacher and not more strange students.

*******

It wasn't until after dinner that everybody was able to meet in Kurama's spacious student teachers room, which actually had enough room to seat everybody. For awhile they just sat and caught up with what had happened over the summer. However, when Botan started pounding on a desk and calling, "Order, order!" they finally began to talk about the Ice Maidens and why the girls had suddenly showed up at the school.

"Koenma is getting worried that if you don't find her soon, the Ice Leader will come back to have a nice little talk with him. Plus, when we picked up the demonic energy in the forest-"

Yusuke jumped in before Botan could continue. "Whoa Botan, hold on a minute, what demonic energy are you talking about?"

Botan seemed surprised that the former Spirit Detective, the champion of the Dark Tournament, the one who nearly won the Makai Tournament, had not sensed the small amount of energy the was coming from the Forbidden Forest.

"_Of course,"_ Botan thought to herself before she answered. _"Its size may be why they over looked it in the first place."_

"There's a small amount of demonic energy leaking from the Forbidden Forest, as if something is trying to suppress their energy but not totally succeeding."

"You mean there's a demon in the forest? Do you think it could be the Ice Maiden trying to hide there?" Kuwabara asked from his seat next to Yukina, who didn't seem to mind his presence. Hiei, who did mind that the baka was sitting next to his secret sister, answered him sharply from his place in the window sill.

"Of course it's a demon you fool. What else lets off a demonic signature? And what Ice Maiden would be stupid enough to hide a forest full of dangerous human world creatures where we could easily seize her without anyone's notice, when she could be here where there are at least a few witnesses."

Botan tried her best to ignore Hiei. "No, it's definitely not an Ice Maiden. The energy has a distinct pattern that makes it easy to identify. It's a shadow demons aura."

Botan looked nervously at Lavena and Kurama, who had been sitting in a corner only passively listening to their friends talk. However they both straightened up at the words "shadow demon". Even though it had been five years since The Creator had kidnapped Lavena and tried to use her to power his experiments, the experience still burned brightly in their memories.

Especially Lavena's.

"Shadow demon? You don't mean that he-"

Botan laughs helped to ease some of the tension that had filled the room since she had mentioned shadow demons. "No, The Creator is not about to come back from the dead so he can finish trying to make the perfect human demon combination." Despite her positive message, Botan's face fell. "Of course, there are others who would gladly finish his work so they could have a full fighting force that would be easier to replace then full blooded demons and stronger and smarter then full blooded humans."

Lavena took a steadying breath. Even though she wasn't the kind of girl that scared easily, any mention of shadow demons made her start shaking. Kurama put a comforting arm his wife and the others all looked away as they kissed.

"Uh...yes, well," Botan finally stammered causing the two lovebirds to look up. "I'm sure you all remember the negative affects the shadow demons can have on people."

"Suicide."

"Depression."

"Uncontrollable rage."

"Cruelty."

"And let's now forget the best of all, death."

Botan stared at her friends. "Uhhh...yes, anyway, I just wanted to remind of those things and the fact that the demons only magnify those things that are already in a person's nature."

"Botan," Kurama had that thoughtful look on his face. "The demons leave small amounts of energy on the people they're influencing, yes?"

"Yes, usually, although some of the older ones can completely wipe even those small traces away. Why do you ask?"

"I noticed some small amounts of demonic energy clinging to Mr. Potter roughly two weeks ago. And ever since we got to school he's been acting..."

Yusuke cut in. "He's been acting like somebody whose entire life has been wiped out by something that laughs at him no matter what he does to stop it."

Botan thought about it for a moment. "Yes, it would make sense that the demon would be trying to control Harry Potter. He's one of the most powerful wizards in the world, and he's only seventeen! Just imagine what he'll be like when he's old-"

"Botan!" Everybody nearly shouted at her so she would get back to the point.

The blue haired ferry girl grinned sheepishly. "Sorry, anyway Harry also happens to be the owner of all three of the Deathly Hallows, which might explain why the demon wants to control him."

"The Deathly Whato's?" Yusuke sat up in his chair at the weird words and looked over at Kuwabara, whose face also reflected confusion at Botan's explanation.

"No, I think she said the Deathly Wallows. Ya know, like somebody who's died and all they do is whine about it. Kind of like what you did when you became a ghost." Kuwabara snickered as Yusuke leaped out of his chair and grabbed him by his collar.

"Both of you idiots shut up." Lavena said sharply as she pulled a blanket over her shoulders and leaned on Kurama's shoulder looking like she was about to fall asleep.

Yukina took out the small pocket watch that the stern witch in charge of the hospital wing had given her in order to make sure that she had no excuses for being tardy to work.

"It's getting late." She said simply, and then looked up at Botan. "Is there anything else before we go?"

"Not really, I just wanted to explain what the Deathly _Hallows_ are before we go to bed, but it'll be quick. I promise." She held up her hand as if she was swearing before a court.

It was quiet for a minute as Botan waited for everyone else to say something and everyone else waited for Botan to continue.

Hiei finally got fed up with the silence. "Well get on with it woman!"

Botan jumped at the growl. "Right, well, there are three hallows, the Resurrection Stone, the Elder Wand, and the Invisibility Cloak and out of the three the wand is definitely the strongest. It will beat anything that it is set against; however it casts better spells along the destruction line."

"I can see why a demon would want it." Yusuke said quietly, but Lavena quickly kicked him into silence again.

"Of course, if the demon wants complete control over the wand then it'll have to kill Harry. That's the only way to get complete obedience out of the wand."

"I doubt the wand cares who is in control of it, Botan." Yusuke spoke up again causing Lavena to kick him again.

"Dang it Lavena, cut that out!" He hissed at her. Lavena only stuck her tongue out at him and nuzzled back into her blanket and Kurama's arms.

Kurama ignored both of them. "Sometimes magical or demonic items do have their own consciousness, Yusuke. In human world most of these types of items are thought to be possessed."

"Greeeeat." Yusuke continued to whisper to himself as Botan continued talking. "Try to find a blue haired girl and we end up looking for possessed pieces of wood. Ow!" He yelped as Lavena kicked him again, finally fed up with the black haired boys constant murmuring.

"As I was saying," Botan said forcefully, finally managing to get her friends short attention span focused on her again. "The other two hallows aren't quite as dangerous. The Resurrection Stone can bring back the spirits of the dead, but they can't affect living creatures."

"Like ghosts?" Kuwabara asked.

Boton nodded. "Yes, exactly like ghosts."

"Hey," Yusuke was back to whispering at Lavena. "Why didn't you kick him? He talked."

"He didn't say anything stupid or useless." She whispered back.

"Shut up!" Hiei finally yelled, and then he rubbed his eyes as if they hurt while he lay back into the window sill.

"Thank you Hiei." Botan smiled widely at the little fire demon. "And lastly there's the Invisibility Cloak."

"I thought the wizarding world already had invisibility cloaks." Yukina said softly.

"Yeah," Kuwabara picked up on his sweetheart's line of thinking. "What's so special about this one?"

"Besides that it remains practically new for as long as it's in one piece, nothing much, except that it and the two other hallows are in the possession of Harry Potter."

"So that whole long speech basically meant 'the demon hiding in the forest wants this boy Harry Potter because he has all three Deathly Hallows which the demon wants because they will make him stronger so we better watch out for Potter.'" Lavena kept her eyes closed and she spoke sleepily from her spot against Kurama.

Botan thought about it. "Yes I suppose so."

Lavena sighed as she readjusted the blanket to include Kurama. "Then why didn't you say that before so we could get to sleep like normal people."

Kurama laughed and planted a kiss on Lavena's reddish brown hair. "Since when did we become normal people?" He asked as the others left for there own rooms. Hiei merely "hn"ed and jumped out of the window to the Forbidden Forest when the foxes got to caught up in each other's presence.

Although, considering that soon he would have to open up a noisy portal in the middle of the night, Hiei wasn't about to complain about his friend's distraction.

Since his friends were ignoring him, Hiei decided to return the favor and quickly jumped from the window. Once he reached the safety of a large tree limb in the Forbidden Forest, Hiei took out the small communication mirror that Botan kept forgetting to take back from him. He didn't really care for the thing; it was small and annoying and was too easy to dismantle or disrupt. And it was pink. Hiei would have burned the ugly thing if the person he had to talk to had even the smallest amount of clairvoyant powers. But she didn't, so until he was able to speak to her in person, he was stuck with the ugly thing.

With these things in mind, Hiei flipped open the mirror and switched it on. He waited patiently until the other mirror in Makai to activate.

Soon, the miniature face of the missing blue haired Ice Maiden appeared on the screen. She was a lovely apparition with pale blue eyes and a frost-like quality to her hair. Her skin was pale and even though she was on a completely different plane of existence, Hiei knew that she gave off a slight ripple of coolness, like a human's body heat.

"Hey Suki," Hiei spoke softly and gave the woman a small smile. Then it left his features as he told her the news of the new shadow demon that was hiding out in the forest, although his face still looked gentler then usual.

Suki listened quietly as Hiei finished telling her about the most recent events.

"Alright," She said. "I suppose we'll have to be even more careful. Although chances are that with the Spirit Detectives already so close to finding me, neither the Ice Leader nor Koenma-daio will have sent anyone else, so this other demon is a coincidence."

Hiei knew that that was the most logical explanation, but he also knew that only incredibly lucky people like Yusuke had anything to do with coincidences.

"Do you really believe that?" He asked quietly after thinking through her explanation and figuring out that Suki and he were not lucky enough for this other demon to be a coincidence.

Suki thought about it for a moment and then sighed, coming to the same conclusion as her dark haired husband.

"What are we going to do now?" She asked quietly. "I can't stay here much longer or something else will only find me and drag me back to the Ice Leader and as far as I can tell, that school is by far the safest place to be. I know you think it's a stupid idea, but please let me at least try." Suki knew very well that Hiei thought it was safer in Makai, even if she was wanted. But then again, Hiei had managed to survive in Makai since the elder Ice Maidens had thrown him over the edge of the cliff. He had the power and ability to stay alive in the dark and dangerous world. Suki hardly had either.

At this point however, Hiei was ready to agree with his wife, despite the fact that he was supposed to arrest her and that there was a shadow demon hiding near the castle. At least here he would be able to help watch out for her.

"Okay," He said, giving in to Suki's request. "Can you wait a few more days so I can get the device that the ferry girl uses to send her owl to Reikai? It'll make it easier to open a portal unnoticed."

Suki nodded, and then whipped her head around to look behind her.

"What is it?" Hiei had lowered his voice even more, making it almost impossible for anyone but the last missing Ice Maiden to hear him.

"No," Suki had lowered her voice as well. "But I think I'd better go anyway. I'm watching the neighbor's children while their parents go to fetch their aunt."

Hiei nodded. "I'll see you in a day or two then. Keep yourself safe. I love you."

Suki smiled sweetly at him and Hiei gave her a small smile of his own. "I will," She said. "And I love you too." Then the small screen went black as Suki closed her own hideous mirror. Hiei stashed the bright thing inside his cloak, then lay back against the huge tree trunk and settled in to sleep. He wouldn't be worried, or bored, for much longer.


	6. Chapter 6: Shades and Maidens

One thing before you start, Merry Christmas! School is finally out and I somehow managed to pass all my finals! Yes. Yes! YES! So, uh,I don't know what else to say. So read on.

* * *

7th Year 

Chapter Six: Shades and Maidens

The next morning, the group was scattered throughout the school, trying to look like normal exchange students and assistants. Yukina was busy helping Madam Pomfrey in the infirmary, her 'lost' brother sat unnoticed in one of the school's large open windows watching the three stooges bicker about how to keep Harry safe from demonic harm. The only anomaly was that Kurama and Lavena were late for breakfast, but other then their friends no one really noticed them.

After dismissing his friends' strange behavior, Kuwabara went back to his potions homework so that he could at least _pretend_ to belong in the Wizarding School. Unfortunately, he couldn't pretend to know what the professors were talking about, and he was failing miserably just like Yusuke. Maybe he should look into tutoring…

"Don't be stupid Yusuke!" Botan whispered through her teeth as the other students began to give her and the previous spirit detective strange looks. She flashed them a quick smile before continuing her argument with Yusuke. Kuwabara half listened as he began to wonder if Kurama or Lavena would be able to help him.

"We can't just go over there and suddenly act all friendly with them when they think we're probably going to kidnap their friend." Botan smiled threatening at Yusuke, who glowered back. Kuwabara decided that both foxes would be to busy with their own work to be of much help. Maybe Hiei…?

"Well we can't just sit here and stalk them either!" Yusuke was getting tired of this fight. "They'll think we're psychos and avoid us at all cost. Fat lot of good that'll do." He muttered to himself as Botan glared at him. No, Kuwabara thought definitely. The great Kazuma Kuwabara would never need help from that shrimp.

"Well, what do you suggest we do?! So far all I've heard is 'no that's dumb,' or 'that won't work, let's hear another one.'" Botan finally raised her voice attracting the attention of the whole student body.

Kuwabara ignored his friends as they started to shout and point. Instead, he calmly picked up his books and breakfast from the table and moved away from his distracting companions. For the most part they ignored him too, but when he sat next to Hermione and the others, they took notice.

So did the Hogwarts kids.

"Can I help you?" Hermione asked almost peevishly.

"Yeah," Kuwabara said in his thick accent. "I need help with my schoolwork and when I heard that you were the smartest person in the entire class-"

"You want me to tutor you?" Hermione asked in a mix of surprise and disbelief.

"That would mean you'd help me understand what everyone's talking about right?" Kuwabara asked trying to understand the English word.

"Yes…" Hermione was beginning to see the foreign boy's problem. If he couldn't understand English then it was no wonder he needed help.

"Then yes, that's what I want you to do." Kuwabara snapped his fingers in triumph.

Before Hermione could even begin to think about what to say, Yusuke plopped down in the seat opposite of Kuwabara and began to talk angrily in a strange language that no one knew. It wasn't Japanese, Neville had told the others about his small conversation with their Herbology assistant teacher, and it certainly wasn't English or any other speech that Harry or his friends had heard before.

"What are you doing?!" Yusuke demanded using one of the more common strains of the language that demons used. They had started avoiding Japanese after Kurama had discovered Neville's fluency in their home dialect.

"I'm trying to get them to talk to me. What's it look like I'm doing?! Besides, I really do need help in-"

"Shut up!" Yusuke said. "That's the stupidest idea I've ever heard."

"In fact, it's stupid enough to work!" Botan exclaimed startling everyone as she popped up next to Kuwabara. "And besides," The ferry girl added in a playful tone. "You need even more help then Kuwabara does Yusuke."

"What?!" Yusuke whined.

"I'm sorry," Botan switched to English as she addressed the confused English students. "But Yusuke has never liked asking for help even though he needs it more then anyone else here."

Yusuke started to shout at the poor ferry girl who only held up her hands in self defense and giggled nervously.

"What the he-" Ron started to say, but Hermione quickly cut him off, just as Botan had stopped Yusuke a few moments before.

"Fine." She said pertly. "I'll help you two, but you'll have to do your own work. I'm not a babysitter." She crossed her arms stubbornly and glared them down in such a way that Yusuke was reminded of Keiko when she was feeling especially stubborn and angry.

"Okay then," Kuwabara answered for the both of them. "When should we start?"

* * *

"What the heck are you doing?!" Ron demanded of his girlfriend once they had left the table. 

"Keeping a close eye on our potentially dangerous exchange students. You don't think that it would seriously be better if we ignored them while they do whatever it is they're doing right under our very noses? We need to keep a close eye on them in case they're as hazardous as we think they are."

Ron paced angrily as he though over what Hermione had said. He suddenly stopped pacing when he realized that she had a valid point.

He sighed heatedly. "Fine, but what if they're just exchange students like McGonagall says?"

"Oh come on Ron, do you really believe that? Look at them, look at how they act. They are up to something, and it's our job to find out what it is."

"Why?" A soft voice asked.

Ron and Hermione looked over at their friend. Over the past months they had watched him suffer from an excess of emotion. He began to feel every little pain he had caused the families of those who had been killed in the final battle with Voldemort, especially the Weasleys. All his friends had seen it, but had been as unable to help him as Ron and Hermione were now.

"What do you mean 'why' Harry?" Hermione asked in a small voice.

"Why should we have to find out what they're doing? Why does it matter?" His voice rose a little. "Every time we stick our noses into someone else's business we end up hurting others. In my opinion it isn't worth it." He all but ground the last part through his teeth in his first real display of emotion that anyone had seen in a long time. After a scathing look at his speechless friends, Harry stalked away to nurse his sour mood before it was swallowed up by the painful numbness once more.

* * *

"Yes," The inky blotch writhed in its hidey hole in twisted pleasure as it sensed Harry's hatred of himself. The shadowy blemish sucked on the boy's hatred, like someone siphoning gas out of a tank, stealing it without the owner's knowledge and replacing it with an over whelming emptiness that he would notice later. 

"Yes," The demon whispered again as he sent out a tendril of his energy to encase Harry and fed off his self-loathing. For a brief moment the creature basked in the hate and anger that filled the young hero.

Then reality came back to bite him. Hard.

* * *

"Mr. Potter?" Harry shook as his feelings were once again swallowed by the numbing miasma that seemed to always lurk nearby. Coldly, he saw he was crouched on the stone floor, shaking with some unknown force. 

"Mr. Potter? Are you well?" The calm voice said again and Harry realized that whoever was trying to talk to him was also shaking him lightly. He looked bleakly into the face of the speaker and saw distantly his new assistant teacher, Lavena Minamino.

He tried to force a reassurance that he was fine out of his mouth, but his jaw refused to open.

"Harry Potter, are you all right?" She asked again. A soothing feeling washed over Harry as she waited, like a piece of the wall that cut him off from others crumbled and dissolved.

"Yes," He finally said. "I'm f-" He tried to say fine, but realized that he was nowhere near it. "I'm tired." That was true enough.

He tried to stand, but his feet had turned to lead. Lavena kindly helped him up and waited for him to find his balance.

"Thanks." He whispered half heartedly before heading off to his dorm for some sleep. As he put more distance between him and the worried student assistant, the hole in the wall rebuilt itself, leaving Harry with nothing but that lonely feeling that had been his constant companion all summer.

* * *

"Stupid!" The vile pool flattened and shaped itself in frightening perverse ways that resembled the black blood of the vilest demons. 

"Stupid, how could you forget the idiots that inhabit that black forsaken ruin of a castle!" The demon cursed itself vividly. In its momentary pleasure, the shade had forgotten the Spirit Detectives presence as well as the foxes' keen awareness of both demonic and spirit energy.

"The Vixen will tell the others and the Fox has already sensed your traces on the boy. They will know something is happening to him. You will have to move faster now if you want that life and power!" The Shade continued to curse and blame itself as it twisted itself into more and more disgusting shapes.

"Slow," It commanded itself softly. "Slow, you must be calm if you are to get what you want. Slow." The sickening twisting slowly came to a halt as the demon regained its rational thinking.

"You will need help now. You can no longer complete this on your own, but who? Who needs what you can provide at a seconds notice?" It stilled its gelatinous form as it thought and then a ripple skimmed over its surface as it thought of a very good answer.

"Yes…" It whispered harshly as it slithered farther back into its rotten hole to retrieve the small chip of smoky-blue crystal that it had kept as a last resort.

It quickly sucked up the blue-black sliver and then awakened the power that let it contact the leader of the Ice Witches, who so badly wanted the last remaining free runaway: Suki D'ta.

* * *

"I'm telling you, the shadow demon is after Harry for whatever reason. We need to stop worrying about the last Ice Maiden and focus on whatever it is that the puddle of slime is trying to get." Lavena said passionately from her usual spot next to Kurama on the small couch near the window. 

"I'm sorry Lavena, but Koenma won't allow it. I understand why you would want to go after the shadow instead but," Botan started to say.

"But what?" Lavena stood up abruptly, her hands clenched into fists. "But catching some stray is more important than stopping another Shade from driving someone else into a pointless depression and then maybe killing himself?" Lavena shook with her own memories of that unending feeling that she was completely alone. Cut off from any other living thing with those living shadows creeping and slithering all around her as the Creator sucked the life right out of her body to be captured in a jar that was supernatural even by Makai standards.

A gently tug pulled Lavena back from her nightmare and she sank back into the warmth of reality as she sat down again, letting her family and friends offer their own comfort.

It was silent for a moment as Lavena settled back into her spot and pulled the deep blue blanket closer to her.

Strangely enough, it was Hiei who broke the silence.

"She's right." He said in his usual hushed voice. Everyone in the room looked up at Hiei when he paused.

"But Hiei," Botan said softly. "We can't just forget about the Ice Maidens. The relationship between them and Reikai are already strained and it would only be stupid to stress them further."

"I meant," Hiei spoke again. "that we should keep them both in mind. Given our luck, there's a more then good chance that the Shade and the Maidens are connected in some fashion."

"You think the missing Maidens are connected to the Shadow demon?" Yukina asked in her usual soft and gentle voice.

"No, I think her great and imperious Leader is somehow involved with the low class trash."

"Then do you think that the Leader wants the Hallows that Botan talked about earlier?" The small Maiden asked as she bent her head in thoughts of her own, trying to puzzle out the interesting problem unfolding before the all.

"I don't know." Hiei admitted, winding back in on himself, ending his part in the conversation. Even knowing the fire demon's reserved nature, his friends had noticed how unusually aloof and distant he had been the last few days since the girls' first arrived.

"Well," Botan said uneasily. "What do we do now?"

Yusuke sighed explosively. "Go to bed." He said rubbing his head distractedly.

"I'm being serious Yusuke." Botan exclaimed loudly in weariness.

"Well, so am I. I'm bushed." He said with a yawn as he stretched out his arms.

"Yusuke is right Botan," Kurama said calmly, hiding his fatigue behind his usual calm. "None of us will be able to think clearly unless we get some rest. The problem will still be there in the morning and most likely for much longer."

"Yeah, see, I can have good ideas sometimes." Yusuke said proudly as he and the others made their way out the door and to their separate rooms.

"Sure," Kuwabara smiled wickedly. "Like once in a lifetime."

Hiei left his window seat before the two dimwits could carry things further. He found his usual tree in the Forbidden Forest and waited for the castle's inhabitants to settle down for the night, especially Kurama. He was the only one who knew Hiei well enough to know that his unusual behavior had more to it then met the eye. He was planning something and so far the main reason the clever fox hadn't figured it out was because of Lavena. Hiei knew very well that his friend would put two and two together, but the fire demon would try to put that moment off as long as he could. It would be safer for all of them that way: the dolts, the girls, themselves, and especially Suki.

* * *

The next morning, the Great Hall was filled with excited chatter as Yusuke entered the large room for breakfast. He looked around cautiously but curiously as he sat down in his usual place next to Kuwabara and Botan at the Gryffindor table. 

"What's going on?" He asked the taller boy quietly as he scooped eggs onto his plate and continued to look around the rectangular hall.

Kuwabara nodded towards the large table where all the professors, and the two student professors, sat.

"She's finally here." He said just as quietly and Yusuke finally noticed that the one chair that had been empty ever since school began was now occupied. In it was a small woman with powdery blue-white hair and crystalline sapphire eyes that were filled with a cold clarity that did not chill Yusuke to the bone as he had come to expect from all other Ice Maidens except Yukina.

Professor Suki D'ta nodded her head to Yusuke in recognition and then returned her attention to the tiny Professor Flitwick, who had been talking to his newest staff member.

Finally, Yusuke thought, the last Ice Maiden was here. Maybe now they could get some answers.

* * *

She's finally here! Yay! 

Zel: Good for you, you've now introduced one of the main characters.

Rose: Be quiet. I'm tired from staying up till midnight, but at least I got this done. Yes!


	7. Chapter 7: Explanations and Suspicions

I've finished chapter seven! Ta-da! Please review once you've finished reading it. I could use the support, or criticism if that's really how you feel. Anyway, I have no claim on Yu Yu Hakusho or Harry Potter but anyone else your unfamiliar with I probably made up, so there actually mine.

* * *

7th Year

Chapter Seven: Explanations and Suspicions

"Good morning class." Professor D'ta spoke to her last class of the day in a proper voice that reached to Harry, Ron, and Hermione who were sitting in the very back of the class room trying to avoid notice while noticing everyone else at the same time.

"I'm sorry for my late arrival, but there was a bit of trouble with my traveling arrangements." She said as she turned her back on the class and began to write the semester outline on the blackboard.

"From what I understand," She said still writing. "You all have a good understanding of creatures, dark spells, and how to protect yourselves from said spells and creatures. Correct?" here she glanced back at her class to see some bobbing heads then turned back to the board.

"In that case," She finally finished what she had been writing and stepped away off to the side so her students could see. "This year we will be learning about demons and apparitions."

Someone in the back didn't bother to hide their scorn.

"I'm sorry Ms. Granger; did I say something that offended you?" Suki raised one pale blue eyebrow at the disbelieving girl in the back.

"I don't mean to be rude Professor," Hermione said for politeness sake. "But I'm afraid you're mistaken."

"Which means yes, it did offend me." Ron whispered to Harry laughingly. Harry didn't even try to smile.

Suki had a look on that said she had expected nothing less then disbelief. "I see," She said not taking her clear eyes from Hermione as she hopped up onto her desktop. "What am I mistaken about?"

Hermione rolled her eyes like it was obvious. "You don't honestly expect us to believe that demons exist. They're about as real as the monster under the bed. Nowhere does it say in any of our textbooks or reference materials that devils and evil spirits are real."

The professor was silent for a moment as she thought over what her more skeptic student had said. Finally she raised her crystal gaze from the floor back to the brown haired girl. She cocked her head to the side quizzically as she looked Hermione over as if trying to decide what to think of her.

"Ms. Granger," She finally said as she swung her legs back and forth. "You were one of the few that believed Mr. Potter when he said Lord Voldemort had returned, yes?"

"Yes…" Hermione answered suspiciously, wondering what the short, slender woman was getting at.

"Why didn't anyone believe any of you?" Prof. D'ta leaned back on her hands and waited for the older teenager to answer. When she didn't respond, Suki leaned forward and replied for her.

"No one believed you because no one thought it was possible for the Dark Lord to return from certain death, yes?"

"Yes." Hermione said. "But what has that got to do with-" She stopped when the blue haired woman held up her hand in a request for silence.

"For someone so smart Ms. Granger, you very narrow minded. You were more then happy to believe your friend when he told you that Voldemort was back, but you are also quite ready to dismiss what I'm about to teach you."

"But Harry had proof." Hermione said in frustration.

With a loud clap, Prof. D'ta jumped off her desk to the floor. "Proof hmm?" She said with a knowing smile. "I can give you irrefutable proof."

Everyone waited for their new Professor to show them her apparently amazing proof, but the strange little woman only stood there watching her first class, especially the two exchange students that sat near the window.

Both Yusuke and Botan stared at Suki D'ta, wondering if she would really reveal her non-human identity.

"Unfortunately it wouldn't be safe," Suki finally spoke up. "So I have to get permission from your Headmistress first."

There was an almost audible whoosh of air as the class sighed in unison because of disappointment/exasperation at their new teacher. She seemed to enjoy playing with them far too much. "So in the mean time," The happy woman said turning to her desk and grabbing a large and most likely heavy book. "Each of you come get a book from me and turn to page 304. Please be careful with these too, there a class set and very expensive, which is why they'll stay with me and you'll come and get them whenever you need them. Hello Spirit Detective," She said in a quieter voice as Yusuke and Botan came up to get there books. "How is Koenma?"

"Fine," Yusuke said picking up a book and inspecting it. "He can't wait to meet you."

Suki noticed how Ron and Hermione watched her and the Spirit Detectives as they and their listless friend picked up their books. "So since you know more then the others," Professor D'ta spoke louder so that her spectators could hear her. "I will expect the two of you to give me a report on a lower class demon of your choice, due what's today?" She asked looking around her for some clue. "Tuesday, right, so how about you give this to me on Friday?" She nodded her head and turned her attention back to the other students not waiting for either Botan or Yusuke to give her an answer.

"O-okay." Botan said surprised she had actually been given homework by the woman they were supposed to arrest.

"The rest of you," Professor Suki told the rest of the class. "Will read the introduction of the book and take notes for an open notes quiz on Friday. You have the rest of the period to work on that." She promptly ignored them for the rest of the period only looking up to tell someone to be quiet and get to work.

* * *

"Harry Potter?" The Professor called as the rest of her class filed out of the room. Harry looked up dolefully and then shuffled over to the anxious looking blue haired woman.

"Yes Professor?" He asked not looking up from the floor.

Suki did not say anything. She scrutinized Harry as he stared at the stone floor uncaringly. She knew that she said something then, although she was not sure what it was as she reached out with her cold energy and gently pushed at Harry.

The boy did not even blink as a ripple of dark water flowed out from the point where Suki had touched him with her energy.

"Thank you Mr. Potter." Suki said narrowing her eyes at the indifferent boy. He drug his feet out of the door to where his suspicious friends were waiting and then the three of them walked to their rooms to continue their homework.

Suki watched, now certain that a weak, but stubborn, apparition was clinging to Harry for some reason that she did not know. Maybe even Harry was not sure why something as malicious as that creature would cling to him. She did not have much time to think about it either. Barely two minutes later, Koenma's bloodhounds, all five of them, walked into the room.

"Suki D'ta?" The boy with slicked back black hair asked as the blue haired ferry girl, Botan Suki remembered, pulled out a pair of thin bands that resembled plain bracelets.

"Yes?" Suki said glancing over the rest of them. The orange haired boy looked distracted. She assumed that he was Kuwabara. She had heard about him and his strange behavior through a few letters that Yukina had sent her, and while she agreed that he was certainly strange, he did _not_ look at all charming or attractive. She was more inclined to agree with Hiei about him; he looked like a monkey. A very strange monkey.

Suki moved on and noticed that the red headed Kurama was watching her intently, but then again as the human form of Youko, she assumed that he intently watched a good deal more then normal people. Hiei sat unobtrusively on the window sill with his hands behind his head, listening to the others.

Yusuke stared speaking again. "We're going to have to arrest you Ms. D'ta. You-"

"Mrs." Suki cut in, shocking the others, including Hiei who had not thought that this would come up.

"You're married?" Kuwabara cried out in disbelief.

Suki tilted her head, wondering if there were enough similarities between human and demon marriage to deserve the same name. "Basically, yes."

"Basically?" Yusuke asked, wondering what the differences were. However Suki only nodded enthusiastically, keeping her mouth shut.

Kurama sighed. Suki was only prolonging the inevitable and he was more then ready to get this over with and go home. "Give me the bracelets Botan." He said quietly stepping towards the young looking woman to take the loops that would transport Suki back to Reikai.

"Hold out your wrist."

"No." Suki said stalling for time.

"Hold out your hand Mrs. D'ta." Kurama growled, liking the Ice Maiden less and less.

"No." She said gazing coolly at the fox demon and keeping her hands neatly folded in her lap. Kurama tried to forcibly put the loops on her wrists, but she smacked his hand away and held her arms closer to her body. A sudden cool burst of air exploded into the room and temperature dropped dramatically.

"Call your energy back Suki D'ta." Kurama instructed his voice as cold as the surrounding air.

"I'd love to," Suki said sarcastically still keeping her hands to her self. "But I'm not doing anything."

Kurama looked up to see the two women in the doorway just as Kuwabara yelled, "Yukina!" The small young maiden entered the room with Lavena trailing confusedly behind her.

"Stop it Kurama." Yukina said in one of the coolest voices anyone in the room had ever heard her use. "I can explain."

* * *

"This," Yukina said once everyone had settled into their seats. "Is my friend, Suki D'ta. I'm not sure how much you know about Ice Maidens beyond the basic facts that we live by, but there is a small group of us that has been instructed by the Leader to investigate how others outside our society live. They're the reason we know about humans and men and a few other races of demons actually." She said fidgeting in her chair uncomfortable with all of the people staring at her, even if they were her friends. "I myself was not chosen to be part of the D'ta; usually the Leader picks those that act differently then the others, but since I had a few friends like Suki who were apart of it, so I knew more about what they did then most of the others." Yukina squirmed again in her chair and Suki laid a hand on her knee and smiled.

"I'll take it from here." She offered and Yukina smiled gratefully. Kurama watched the small woman carefully as she straightened in her chair and placed her hands neatly in her lap.

"Aside from watching others," Suki said seriously. "We were also ordered to find a way to stop the slow but steady weakening of the Ice Maidens."

"Weakening?" Yusuke asked not understanding. "How have you been getting weaker?"

"We didn't know at first, but we noticed that every generation was weaker then her mothers. A little over sixteen years ago though, we found that it was mostly because of the way we have children." She spoke like a scientist now, formal and direct. From what Kurama had heard of the select group of Ice Maidens allowed to study the world below their glacier that made sense. The D'ta were chosen for their curiosity and scientific way of thinking.

"So because you cloned yourselves-" Kuwabara tried to say, but was cut off by Yukina's soft laugh.

"No Kazuma," She said patiently, leaning forward to take his hand to show she was not making fun of him. "We don't clone ourselves. Cloning is where you make an exact duplicate of an organism. We use something similar mitosis so we only give half of our genetics to our daughters, much like humans do except that they don't receive another set of genes from another parent."

"Which turned out to be the problem." Suki said bringing the conversation back on track. "Because daughters only got half of their mother's genes and nothing else, there was nothing to even them out so to say. So they lost a good half of their mother's power at least as well as a few other important things which ended up making them sicker and physically weaker. We had no idea of how to fix the problem once we found out what it was." Suki suddenly smiled, lifting the dire mood that was beginning to descend as she ruffled Yukina's hair in a strangely human gesture. "And then we met Yukina."

"What makes Yukina so different from the rest of you?" Lavena asked.

"She has two parents instead of one, a mother and a father, which is also how she has a brother."

"So the rest of you don't have dads?" Kuwabara said in a slightly disturbed tone. "That's kind of gross when you think about it…"

"Yes well we think that men in general are gross so…" Suki bit back, quickly losing patience with the monkey Yukina seemed to favor. She saw Hiei smirk out of the corner of her eye and her anger cooled. "Anyway," She continued smoothing the fabric of her dress over her lap in an old nervous habit. "We noticed that Yukina was stronger and healthier than the average Ice Maiden and we found that it was because she had a father as well as a mother. So our logical conclusion was that if we stopped reproducing by this mitosis-like system and by…" Suki's mouth moved up and down but no sound came out as she tried to name the other way. Hiei's smile grew wider as his wife skipped over the awkward bit and continued talking. "Well, anyway, the Leader of course didn't go for it and we were forced to sit back and watch as the girls kept getting sicker. Eventually we couldn't take it anymore and we decided to fix the problem whether the Leader wanted us to or not. So we found a way to change our anatomy and made it impossible for us to use the mitosis-like process anymore."

Suki held her head up high as if daring anyone to tell her that she had done something wrong. She reminded Kurama of the pictures he had seen of noble women in his text books in high school except her hair was down and her clothes were more modern, but with her hands in her lap and her chin tilted stubbornly up, she looked like a Lady.

"I suppose that's the reason the Leader wants you and the other D'ta back?" Kurama ventured as he continued to watch the bold woman.

Suki nodded. "Yes, we escaped nearly eleven, maybe ten, years ago and lived separately on the ground. One or two managed to make it to the human world, like Yukina, but she was the only one to stay there I believe. The others came back not long after leaving. I heard Lira say that it was to confining and strange to live there. She didn't like hiding her gifts very much."

"If this all happened sixteen years ago why hasn't the Leader tried to bring you back before?" Yusuke wondered out loud.

"And how do you even know that your changes worked if you left right after you made them?" Kuwabara added a fairly decent question.

"The D'ta were only able to change the younger girls and a few of their mothers before they were forced to leave." Yukina spoke up again. "So the older women still could use mitosis and have daughters that could do the same. The Leader also thought that since there were no men anywhere near the glacier, the girls the D'ta had changed just wouldn't have children, so she saw no reason to return them to normal."

"She thought she'd just let our little genetic _quirk_," Suki's eyes got so cold as she said that that Kuwabara and Yusuke wondered if it would be wise to migrate to a warmer climate, "die out with the girls we had changed. But she forgot about something." She said bitterly smirking at the end.

Kurama, Hiei, and Lavena all thought they had a good idea as to what she was talking about. "What?" Kuwabara asked as Kurama and Lavena looked at each other sideways and Hiei looked over a Suki without appearing to.

Yukina giggled like a little girl and covered her mouth with her hand. "Mating season." She laughed as she spoke, amused by their curiosity and ignorance about the subject.

"Oh," Botan said her face turning red. "My."

Suki smiled and laughed. "Yes, that about sums it up. Almost all of the girls that were old enough to go through it had very healthy children, and almost all of them were twins. The Leader wanted nothing more then to get rid of them, but even the older women were opposed to that. Fortunately, all of the babies were girls, so no one had to go through what poor Hina did." Suki said sadly taking Yukina's hand as the younger woman hid her eyes and nodded her head in agreement.

The runaway D'ta looked up but did not let go of her friend's hand. "And before we did anything to the girls, we tried the change on ourselves first. And I can tell you that it has worked very well." She said happily touching her stomach.

If Kurama had been facing the other way, he would have seen the strangest look he had ever seen on Hiei's face. But he was not. Instead he had closed his eyes and leaned back in his chair as Yusuke and Kuwabara said something or another. She was pregnant as well as married. This was…interesting. Depending on who her husband was, they may have a serious problem if they shipped her off to Reikai. However Kurama was no longer so sure that that was the best course of action.

Apparently neither was Yusuke. "Hey Botan," he called, "should we tell Koenma about this before sending her back?"

"I'm wondering if we should send her back at all Yusuke, if she's telling the truth that is."

The sudden explosion of hundreds of people talking appeared outside the door as the students made their way down to dinner made everyone except Hiei look up.

"We should go to dinner so no one becomes suspicious." Kurama said standing and putting his chair back in its original place.

"But what are we going to do about her?" Yusuke asked pointing at Suki, who glared at him for his rudeness.

"Until we know what Koenma wants us to do in light of this new information, we should keep her here with the rest of us. It shouldn't take more than a few days for him to come to a decision right Botan?"

Botan looked uncertain. "It shouldn't." She said her voice not quite positive. "I'll send the message to him as soon as I can."

Yusuke nodded, taking up his position of leader. "Okay then, that just leaves what we're going to do with you until he sends us his answer." He said addressing Suki.

"Hn, I'll watch her." Hiei offered from his seat on the window sill. "I'm the only one who's free to do so anyway."

"Okay, let's go eat." Yusuke said clapping his hands together happily. Kurama smiled, amused that the young man could still be distracted by something as simply as food.

As he and Lavena walked down the hallway toward the Great Hall for dinner, Kurama thought about how strange it was for Hiei to _volunteer_ to baby-sit Suki even if he was the only one able to do it.

"Hey," Lavena said calling him back to reality. "What'cha thinking about?"

Kurama was quiet for a moment before he answered. "Don't you think it's strange that Hiei actually offered to watch Suki without having to be asked?"

Lavena shrugged. "Maybe they know each other." She laughed. "Maybe he's her husband." She joked and laughed again at the thought of Hiei in love with someone.

Kurama stopped in the middle of the hallway. _"No…"_ He thought to himself. Sure his friend had been acting strange, like he was planning to do something behind his back, but surely it had not been to bring Suki here. Right? And if say he did care for her and that was the reason he had done it, love? Could he actually be in _love _with Suki D'ta, an Ice Maiden?

"Kurama?" Lavena called and waved her hand in front of his face. "Are you okay honey?"

Kurama snapped out of it. "Yes, yes I'm fine." He said taking Lavena's hand and walking forward. "I was just thinking about what could be wrong with Hiei that's all."

"I'm sure he's fine Kurama, he is Hiei after all."

"Yes." Kurama said and then turned the conversation to a pleasanter topic. He would talk to Hiei later and see if maybe he could not get some better answers besides, "hn."

* * *

Miles away, the ink colored shadow wriggled and squirmed anxiously. It knew it was safe on human world's neutral territory, but the Ice Witch still gave it the creeps.

"What do you want shadow?" She demanded in a cracking voice that one would expect from someone her age. The way she said shadow reminded the shaking splotch of a cuss word and the force with which she spoke made it want to run and hide in its empty rabbit warren.

But its hole was too far away from the meeting place the Witch had agreed to so the shadow did its best to stop its shaking and addressed the old woman with an even voice.

"I am trying to collect the three Deathly Hallows and I would like your help to get one. In return, I am willing to give you the last D'ta Maiden, Suki."

One silver blue eyebrow rose an inch above the other. It had her attention. "What would you like me to do?" She asked directly.

If the shade could breathe, it would have exhaled in relief, but instead it was careful to hide its excitement. She was interested. "There is a boy in the castle where the Brat has sent his detectives-"

"Brat?" The old Witch asked not knowing who he meant.

"The Spirit Prince, Koenma." The shade spit venomously. "He has sent his detectives and their girls to try and capture your missing Maiden. They are also protecting the boy that lives there who has the silver cloak that I want. I have already sucked most of his spirit dry, but I cannot kill him and take the cloak with _them_ watching. I would like you to take the cloak, I don't really care if he dies, that was only easier for me."

"And when I give you this cloak, you will give me Suki D'ta?" The old woman said suspiciously.

"Yes." The shadow hissed and bobbed what was supposed to be its head.

"Very well, deal demon." The Witch said sternly, nodded, and left.

The shade wriggled in pleasure and anticipation. He was so close to finishing his master's work he could almost hear the screams that meant he had succeeded.

* * *

Hey, note for those who don't know already, mitosis is the process where your body's cells split in half, creating two daughter cells. You can look it up on for a full definition if you like.


	8. Chapter 8: Questions and Intruders

That took awhile and I'm sorry that it did. I had some nasty writer's block where I knew what I wanted to say but I didn't know how to say it. The good news is that I must have written most of the next chapter too. Heck I may have written the next chapter and a half, so the next chapter will probably be up soon, but with the holidays coming and school ending soon I wouldn't exactly hold your breath. I would also like to remind all of you that my name is Rose, not Yoshihiro Togashi or J. K. Rowling, so I don't own any of the Yu Yu Hakusho or Harry Potter characters.

*******

7th Year

Chapter Eight: Questions and Intruders

Okay, he needed a plan.

He doubted talking would accomplish anything, but it was a fair first option. Kurama didn't think he'd hear anything useful from Hiei and he suspected he would only arouse suspicion if he went and started asking questions about him and Suki.

Suki was probably going to be just as suspicious but she did not know him well enough to guess what he was doing.

At least, that's what Kurama hoped.

"Can I help you Kurama?" Suki asked not looking up from the papers she was marking in red ink.

Kurama stepped into the room, closing the door behind him. "I find it very interesting that an Ice Maiden, even a D'ta like yourself who wants to push the limitations of thought farther than your society thinks is acceptable, would marry."

Suki finally looked up at him. "Is that all?"

Kurama was a little taken aback. For an Ice Maiden, Suki not only tolerated men without the fear or hatred that most of her 'sisters' usually showed, but she was also oddly straight forward.

Kurama thought for a moment, for once not instantly sure what to say. "I suppose I was having trouble imagining the man you would marry is all." Kurama said looking at the small woman out of the corners of his green eyes.

"Yes, well _you_ would wonder." He thought he heard her mutter as she bent her head back down to the papers.

Kurama silently waited for Suki to actually speak to him as she scribbled red ink across her students' papers at an alarming rate. He was just about to speak up again when Suki finally spoke, her eyes locked on her work. "I do know what you're up to." She told him setting aside the page she was grading. "And it won't work. Not the way you want it to at least. You don't really know him, although you've probably met."

"Probably?" Kurama asked as he processed the information Suki had given him.

Suki smiled at her papers. "You went from being the most infamous thief in Makai to one of Koenma's Spirit Detectives. While it probably does not surprise you the multitudes that know _your_ name, I'd bet you'd be surprised how many people _you_ know, even if you've only met them once or twice."

They were silent again. Eventually Kurama pushed himself off the desk he was leaning against and stood with his arms crossed over his chest. "I suppose that's all you're going to tell me." He stated.

Suki nodded, still not looking up. "Yes, since I don't really see how he's any of your business. Besides, you are much too curious about me for my taste."

Kurama smiled slightly. "So because I show too much interest, you're not going to tell me?"

"Exactly. Makes perfect sense." Suki said sharply setting aside another bleeding paper.

Kurama walked closer to the door, his next class was going to start soon anyway. He opened the door, noticing the small crowd of students waiting to be let in. He swung the door almost shut again, not wanting them to hear him. "By the way," he said turning back toward the woman sitting at the desk still scribbling. "You're a terrible liar Mrs. D'ta."

He slipped out the door before he could see the look on her face.

*******

That evening after classes were over and most people were either studying or heading towards the Great Hall for dinner, Suki sat in her bed, staring unfocusedly at the door. A small noise told her when the window opened, letting someone slip inside her room, but she still did not look up. She had been expecting him for a while now.

"Make sure you close that behind you." Suki told her guest.

The window slid shut and a familiar weight settled next to her on the bed, sinking the cushion even lower. Suki shivered faintly. The chill breeze that had snuck in with her husband seemed to sink into the stone walls and floor, bringing the temperature down to an almost uncomfortable level. Usually Suki would not have minded, she was an Ice Maiden after all, but the children had changed more than her appetite.

"Cold?" Hiei asked in slight disbelief. He knew from his visits to check on Yukina that the home of the Ice Maidens was much colder then this. Right now it was not even cold enough for snow to fall, much less upset an Ice Maiden.

"No," Suki said closing her eyes as she discreetly turned away from the window. "I'm fine."

Hiei watched her, skepticism plastered all over his face. Suki could never lie convincingly; her eyes always gave her away so she had taken to closing them whenever she did not want him to know the truth. Of course, that was as good a sign as if she had left her eyes open.

Slowly, so as not to upset the bed too much, Hiei picked his way over towards the middle of the bed and curled around his wife's back, wrapping his arms around her waist. She shivered once as his higher body temperature clashed with hers, but relaxed as warmth seeped into her skin.

"Thank you." Suki said quietly, sounding tired and slightly wrung out.

Hiei's answer ran together into a slurred murmur as he rubbed the back of her hand with his thumb. He had realized awhile ago that Suki was as open as he was, but he thought that had helped their relationship rather than harmed it. She did not _gush_ like other girls, namely Botan, but she was not as closed off as she wanted others to believe. She also understood his reasoning even more Kurama, especially concerning Yukina. Although that did not mean that she encouraged him to keep his relationship to her a secret.

She also could be incredibly hot tempered, but he thought that was better than freezing all of her emotions like some of the older Maidens that were in charge of their community. It also gave her the audacity to challenge their authority.

Suki twisted herself around, snapping Hiei out of his light doze. When she could not get comfortable she rolled over and buried her nose in his shirt, squeezing her eyes shut as if she were trying to force herself to sleep.

"Your friend is too nosy." She mumbled after another long quiet moment where Hiei half sank into sleep again.

Hiei snorted. "Which one?" He asked wondering what stupid thing Yusuke and Kuwabara had asked about now.

"The fox," She said relaxing again, little by little. "Kurama."

Hiei managed to open his eyes all the way as the information sunk in. "What did he want to know?"

Suki's mouth twitched up into a smile. "He wanted to know what kind of man I would marry."

Hiei frowned slightly, trying to think of a reason why Kurama would suddenly become so interested in Suki's unexplained husband.

Suki sighed, a cool breath that Hiei could feel through his shirt. "He's probably figured it out by now. He seems to be smarter than the others."

Hiei made a noise that was part frustration and part agreement. "His knowing doesn't bother me as much as the others. I don't expect him to go _gossip_ about his new knowledge, but I expect Lavena knows by now."

Suki sighed again, letting out a tiny bit of her own frustration. "You know you won't be able to keep this secret forever, and I will admit that this is getting quite annoying."

"It's none of their business." Hiei said using his usual excuse.

Suki rolled her eyes, even though Hiei could not see. That line was wearing thin. "Yes," she agreed, "but there is a difference between not calling attention to something and deliberately hiding it. Sometimes I get the impression that the main reason you keep this secret is because you want to protect you fearsome reputation." She very nearly spat the last words.

Hiei kept in a frustrated sigh of his own. They had been over this before as well.

"I don't want that, that _woman_," he spat referring to the leader of the Ice Maidens, "to come looking for you because she hears a rumor that one of her lost D'ta maidens is now married and expecting children. She won't just try to catch you; she'll kill you."

Suki opened her clear blue eyes and met Hiei's unyielding red ones.

"Alright, you have a point." She admitted before reaching up to solidly kiss him. "But so do I." She said.

Hiei actually glared at her.

Suki smiled again. "Oh, don't even try to frighten me." She told him. "I never expected you to randomly go tell everybody you ever met that you actually married. It doesn't fit with your character. However if Kurama or Yukina or any of those people that you considered your friend asked you if you were married – although I do admit that it would be a long shot – I would have thought you would tell them the truth."

"I know you love me," She said cutting off Hiei before he got the chance to interrupt. "So the reason I assume you lie to them is that you're afraid that they'll perceive you differently than before, and while I think they kind of will, I don't think they will treat you any different." She suddenly smiled. "I wouldn't worry about them still being afraid of you," she said playfully, "especially Kuwabara."

Hiei grunted. "He does not count as a friend." He told her bluntly.

"Well, that I can understand, but I think he may be family soon, so that doesn't really matter."

Hiei snorted angrily like he always did when he was reminded of Yukina's affection for the human.

Suki laughed as she sat up. "I understand that too, but I think Yukina genuinely likes him, so I think we may be stuck with him. Besides, he can be…sweet."

Hiei looked over at Suki and they both laughed. Sweet, possibly, but only to Yukina; to everyone else he simply appeared to be overly ignorant.

Suki carefully climbed off the bed and took a moment to stifle her laughter and find her balance. "I'm going to clean up," she said pulling her blue robe closer to her to fight off the chill that inhabited most of the room. "I'll be back in a few minutes." She called over her shoulder as she headed towards the private bathroom that was attached to her room.

Hiei listened as the door closed behind her with a tiny click, then rolled over onto his back and put his hands behind his head as he thought about what Suki had said.

*******

Later that night as the stars twinkled clearly in the stark black sky, another chill wind swept across the castle and its surrounding grounds, shaking the trees in the Forbidden Forest until they looked like upside down brushes being bent against a painter's canvas. Everyone, even Hiei, was soundly asleep in the shelter of the castle. Quiet noises, hidden by the wind's howl, echoed down the corridors and hallways of Hogwarts, making the paintings twitch in their sleep.

The intruder tried to dampen the small tell-tale sounds, afraid that they may give her away and the Spirit Detectives would wake and sense her presence. But when the portraits only rolled over in their canvases, the leader of the Ice Maidens ceased her worrying and continued to the back of the school library. She skimmed along the shelves in the furthest section until she came to one that sounded promising. After she broke the alarm spell with a flick of her finger, she picked up the tiny book and flipped through the pages, searching.

Finally she found it. A short paragraph with the title "_Deathly Hallows"_. The old Maiden quickly read the paragraph then snapped the book shut and put it back in its place on the shelve.

So that was what the Shade wanted; to become the Master over Death. Well she certainly could not allow that. Having a low class shadow demon control someone as powerful as herself was down right humiliating.

Still, this could give her an advantage over the Shade. From the look of the situation, it appeared that it would do anything to possess the three items. Maybe she would hold onto this cloak awhile longer then expected. It could be useful, especially if she could find the stone and stick as well to tempt the little demon into doing her dirty work a little longer.

She perfected her plan as she quietly walked down the halls that would lead to the side door she had come through, but a brief flare of energy made her stop. She recognized the crisp energy and silently sprinted down another hallway towards the source.

She finally stopped in front of a closed wooden door. The leader placed her wrinkled hand against the wood and swiftly sent her energy through the porous surface to see if anyone was in the room beyond. The room was empty, but the Ice Leader still proceeded with caution and opened the door slowly and silently.

Behind the door was one of the classrooms were the young ones were taught. She spied a second door higher up behind the large cluttered desk at the front of the room and, just as quietly as before, walked up the stairs and placed her hand on the door.

Suki D'ta's energy pulsed lightly beyond the door as the younger woman moved in her sleep. The Leader almost flung the door open and stormed in to grab the disobedient Maiden, but stopped herself when she realized that a stranger's energy simmered next to her.

The Leader gasped and stepped away from the door as if she expected it to suddenly bite her. The stranger was a fire demon, probably the one that worked for that brat Koenma.

The old Maiden waited, expecting the fire brat to rush out of the room where he had been standing watch and catch her, but nothing happened.

Hesitantly, the old woman placed her hand against the door again and cautiously inspected the people that lay sleeping in the other room.

The energies were still in the same place as before, but now she saw how close they were. Close enough to touch. Close enough to mingle and flow with and around and through each other.

"_That little witch!"_ The Ice Maiden screamed in her head. The fire demon was not there simply as a protection against someone who would try and drag her back home, such as the Leader; he was lying _with_ her. Suki had gone and defiled herself by willingly consorting with a fire demon.

It took all of the Ice Leader's willpower and most of her common sense to keep herself from breaking down the door and going in to kill the little witch were she slept. But the Ice Leader knew very well that she would follow Suki in death with that fire demon sleeping right next to her. If she died she would never be able to reverse whatever it was that the D'ta had done to the younger generation of Ice Maidens. Besides killing her was too easy. Suki D'ta would pay for what she had done the Ice Leader promised as she backed away from the door and out of the room. She was going to pay for her treachery.

*******

The next morning, if you could even call it morning since the sun had not even come up yet, Yusuke was shocked out of sleep by a splash of cold water. The freezing liquid slammed into the back of head, making him jump. His legs were tangled in the blankets so he fell out of bed and landed flat on his rear.

"Hey!" He yelled as he fell out of bed to avoid any more cold water. "Hiei, what was that for?" Yusuke demanded as soon as he was able to identify the small dark figure.

"Shut up," Hiei whispered harshly, "the others are still sleeping." Yusuke looked up at the three other beds where the three other boys slept noisily. Quietly, Yusuke and Hiei left the room, not bothering to wake Kuwabara, who had slept through Yusuke's wake up call. "Well what do you want?" Yusuke asked after he shook the water out of his hair like a dog.

"An Ice Maiden broke into the castle last night." Hiei told him curtly.

Yusuke waited. "Well where is she? What does she want?" He asked loudly when Hiei did not elaborate.

Hiei was tempted to roll his eyes at the dripping detective, but he resisted the urge and instead stared unblinkingly at the other man as he rubbed water and sleep out of his eyes. "We didn't find her. I only found a fading trail of her spirit energy this morning when I went to check on Suki."

"Suki?" Yusuke asked after a yawn. "Since when did you become so familiar with her?"

Hiei did not answer. He had thought that Yusuke was too tired to recognize his ready use of her name.

Apparently he had been wrong. "What else am I suppose to call her?" Hiei asked Yusuke with a huff.

Yusuke shrugged. "I don't know, just never thought you'd be so nice to any ice Maiden besides Yukina." He mumbled more to himself than to Hiei.

Hiei did not say anything as Yusuke yawned again and combed his hair into some semblance of its usual order. "So where's this trail of yours?" Yusuke asked in an irritated tone as he looked out the hall window and saw the barest glimpse of the sun's rays peeking over the trees in the Forbidden Forest. "And why couldn't this wait till morning?"

Hiei gave into the temptation and rolled his eyes. "Hn," he snorted, "it _is_ morning detective."

Yusuke was about snap back, but Hiei had already down the hall, expecting him to shut up and follow. "Hey wait!" Yusuke whispered loudly as he ran after the short tempered fire demon.

Hiei ignored Yusuke as he yelled after him to stop and wait and instead kept walking through the maze of corridors in the still sleeping school to a wooden door like any other that sat in the stone wall a few floors below Yusuke's room. "She got in through a little used door several floors below us and came straight here." He told the younger man as he opened the door. Yusuke and Hiei were greeted with the dusty smell of old books and fresh cold.

"Ugh," Yusuke said, "it smells like Keiko's room before finals."

"It's the library." Hiei told him as they walked in and closed the door behind him.

It was completely still in the large room and not even Hiei or Yusuke's steps ruined the perfect silence of the library. Yusuke followed Hiei to the back of the room to the darkest section where the books were dustier then Yusuke had ever imagined a book could be.

"She came straight here." Hiei said looking at the tall shelves of old books. "But the energy trail has practically faded away, so neither Kurama nor I could tell what she was after."

"Kurama was down here?" Yusuke asked as he went to pick up one of the smaller books near him.

Hiei grabbed his wrist in a flash of movement. "Don't touch." He ordered. "They have an alarm spell on them that is difficult both to break and to replace, yet somehow the Ice Maiden did both in a short amount of time."

Yusuke pulled back his hand looking again at the books rising high above his head. "How do you think she pulled that off?"

Hiei shrugged. "I'm not sure; ask Kurama. He, Lavena, Yukina, and Botan are all in Suki's room just incase the Ice Maiden decided to come back for her." Yusuke nodded in understanding as he turned around to leave the library.

"Where are you going?" Hiei asked as Yusuke walked towards the door.

"I'm going to talk to her. There's no point in staying here with no evidence and you can't even look at the books. Might as well go talk to Suki and see if there's anything suspicious around her room."

*******

Please leave me a review and I'll try and finish off the next chapter soon. See ya later. Oh, and have a Happy Thanksgiving!


	9. Chapter 9: Halloween

Yes, I'm slow. I know and I'm sorry. I got stuck again and I even had the end written out. I think its becoming a bad habit. So anyway I hope you like the chapter.

* * *

7th Year

Chapter Nine: Halloween

Suki tried to go back to sleep where she lay in the middle of her bed propped up against the headboard, but the tiny sounds of her four guests intruded on her, making it impossible to sleep. Yukina sat near the window, humming softly to herself as she felt for the Ice Maiden that had come so close to kidnapping her friend. Lavena and Kurama sat together near the door talking softly with each other and Botan would not stop _fidgeting_ where she stood on the other side of the bed. With a frustrated sigh, Suki rolled over and pulled the blanket closer to her, trying to keep the ever present cold away from her.

Personally she thought four guards was unnecessary, especially when two did not fight, but Yukina had refused to leave and Botan apparently did not have anything better to do. Suki was just glad that Kuwabara had not joined their little party; he was too loud and Suki was starting to feel sick.

As if she had heard what she was thinking, Yukina stopped her humming and came to gently sit on the edge of the bed. "Are you all right Suki?" She asked softly. Suki did not trust her stomach enough to even try and answer.

Fortunately she was saved from trying to answer as Hiei and the Spirit Detective, Yusuke, opened the door and came in.

"I don't know," Yusuke was saying. "Maybe she wanted to borrow a book. Why else would she go to a library?"

Suki flinched slightly at the sound of Yusuke's voice. He was too loud too.

Lavena's snort was much softer on Suki's ears. "For information genius." She told him. "She was looking for something."

"Fine," Yusuke griped. "But what? What would she need to look up?"

"How am I supposed to know?" Lavena shot back, irritated at Yusuke's ignorance and her own lack of sleep.

"Please you two, quiet down, people are still sleeping." Botan said just above a whisper. "We don't want to wake anybody up and have them wonder why we're all in here at five-thirty in the morning."

Reluctantly both Yusuke and Lavena went quiet.

"Well now what do we do?" Lavena asked after a long, slightly uncomfortable, silence.

"We try and find out what the Ice Maiden wanted, besides Suki." Kurama said from his chair near the door. "We need to know if she's planning something and it may tell us what she and the shadow demon have in common, if anything."

Yusuke scratched the back of his head. "I guess Kuwabara and I will check out the door she got through later today. Maybe you can check the forest Hiei and see if she's out there or something." Hiei did not reply, but gave a short sound of reluctant agreement. He would rather be closer to Suki to make sure that whoever it was that had stood outside her door last night would not get any closer a second time.

Suki did not hear any of this. She had finally succeeded in blocking out all of the little sounds that had been pestering her. However she still could not sleep. She felt awful, like her stomach was trying to turn itself inside out.

Her stomach gave another little twist and Suki jumped out of bed as fast as she could, which admittedly was not that fast, and ran into Hiei where he stood leaning against the wall. She grabbed at him, trying to keep her balance while keeping her eyes closed. She did not realize that everyone had stopped talking and was now staring at them since she had managed to tune out all noise and had refused to open her eyes. She did not even hear herself moan pitifully before she stumbled towards the bathroom, Yukina following her worriedly.

*******

"Why are we wasting our free time on this again?" Kuwabara whined again as he and Yusuke walked along the dimly lit hallway that lay in the lowest level of the school.

"So that we can find this lady and go home sooner!" Yusuke yelled at him for the third time.

"I thought we had to stay here to watch out for that Harry kid, not find some lousy kidnapper." Kuwabara said.

"Shut up." Yusuke told him, not that it did much good. Kuwabara kept talking, but Yusuke tuned him out shortly later. "Hey," he eventually said, cutting Kuwabara off mid-sentence, "isn't that it?" Kuwabara looked over at the single door that sat locked against the cold in an even darker hallway than the one they were walking in now.

"I guess so." He said as they walked closer to inspect the wooden door. "I'm not surprised they used this door. I bet nobody comes down here except on special occasions, like Halloween or the end of the world maybe."

"Yeah," Yusuke agreed only half listening. "Let's see where this goes, maybe she stuck around long enough to leave us a clue."

"I don't know I don't feel anything down there. She probably left before we even got up."

Yusuke smirked at his friend. "Well, before you got up anyway."

"Shut up." Kuwabara told him as Yusuke snickered and pushed open the door. "I can't help it if nobody came and told me that some Ice Maiden broke into the castle."

"I thought you were supposed to be the one with the sixth sense. Why didn't you feel her?" Yusuke asked still teasing.

"I was sleeping!" Kuwabara yelled loudly as they walked down the stone steps that were behind the door. "If Hiei couldn't sense her when he was in the room with Suki why should I have felt it halfway across the freaking castle?"

"Huh, good point." Yusuke muttered grudgingly. "Well," He said with more enthusiasm as he and Kuwabara came to the bottom of the stairs. "What do we have here?"

A long unlit stone tunnel stretched out before them. "She's been through here Urameshi, probably not too long ago. She wasn't as careful masking her energy down here. There's a trail, but it's still kinda weak." Kuwabara said as he took a few steps farther into the tunnel.

"Well at least we know where she went." Yusuke said calling his spirit energy into his pointer finger and holding it high above his head as an impromptu flashlight. "Come on," Yusuke called impatiently as he started walking again. "Let's see where this leads."

Kuwabara still hung back. "I don't know about this man," He said. "I got the feeling something else is down here, and it ain't too friendly neither."

Yusuke laughed at the other man. "Oh come on Kuwabara. You don't think we can handle anything that tries to get us? Now come on, I want to hurry this up so I can get back and catch up on my sleep."

"Yeah, I'm coming." Kuwabara said sounding unhappy as he followed Yusuke down the dark tunnel.

*******

Despite Kuwabara's caution, the only thing that came out to grab him was Yusuke. He waited until all light from the open door had disappeared before he let his spirit energy dissipate. Then he jumped out of the darkness, frightening Kuwabara and making him scream.

That however, was the most interesting part of their trip. The tunnel led to a dead end and even though they searched for nearly half an hour, they were not able to find any hidden outlets that the Ice Maiden could have used as an escape.

None of the others could guess how she could have gotten out after they discussed it later that night either. In the end their best guess was that she may have laid a false trail to confuse them and then double backed to some other exit. That would also explain why she had relaxed her cautiousness enough for them to find the trail in the first place.

They did not get another chance to find the Maiden either. Over the next three weeks neither she nor the shadow demon appeared, although Harry was still as listless as ever so they knew that the Shade was still around at the very least, even if it was only laying low.

"Ugh!" Yusuke cried in frustration one day during lunch. "We've been sitting here for almost two months and nothings happened. Why are we waiting on them to act before we find them?"

Kuwabara and Botan looked up from their food. "Because we have no idea where to look." Botan said.

"And we have not just been sitting here." Kuwabara said with a depressed look at the homework he was trying to finish.

"What the-?" Yusuke said in astonishment looking at both his friends. "Why are you worrying about that stuff? We aren't really at school." He told Kuwabara before he turned on Botan. "And how about you try that big scary forest that's lurking just outside the school that's leaking demon energy?"

"We can't just walk into the forest like we live there. The demon might have friends nearby. Plus the forest has its own occupants, most of which hardly tolerate the school much less any intruders like us."

"Yeah it's called 'Forbidden' for a reason Urameshi." Kuwabara said ignoring the homework advice as he finished off his Transfiguration paper.

Yusuke was tempted to tell the other man to shut up and mind his own business, but Botan's answer seemed in greater need of fixing.

"You don't think we can handle any more lower class Shades that come around?" Yusuke asked peeved that she thought _he_ could not handle something as weak as a shadow demon. "And who cares about the weirdo's that live in the forest. We can handle them too."

Botan sighed in exasperation. "Yusuke, we can't do that. This is one of the few places where these creatures can live safely without fear of being found out by the human race and because of certain agreements between the Spirit world, the magic world, and these various creatures, we are not allowed to enter without permission."

"Well how do we get there permission then? They must want that nasty little bug out of there home if they don't even want us in there just to poke around."

Botan tilted her head in thought. "You may have a point Yusuke. I'll send a message to Koenma to see if he can set up an appointment to meet with the forest's inhabitants."

"Fine," Yusuke whined, "just hurry up." He said getting up to leave the Great Hall with the rest of the student body as they went to their afternoon classes.

Botan let out her breath in a whoosh after Yusuke left; Kuwabara trailing behind with his nose buried a book that Hermione had given him to help him with his class. Yusuke still did not seem to understand that messages of any sort, especially those dealing with the very rule restricted Spirit world, took time. In fact it seemed that the more rules there were involved the longer it took for anyone to read and reply to the message as well.

Slowly Botan stood up as she organized in her head all the things she needed to do today besides send Yusuke's request. She still needed to finish looking through her assigned section of the library to see if she could find any book that the Ice Maiden may have looked at. After the guys had discovered that the Ice Maiden's main destination had been the back of the library, they had all split the rest of the room into sections and then assigned each person a section to go through, just incase the Ice Maiden had sifted through any other books. So far no one had had any luck, but that may have been due to the fact that no one had been able to search through the back most part of the library where all of the classified books were located. Even Kurama had not been able to break the spell that lay around, on, and in the books. He described the spell as being too sticky for him to pull off. Every time it tried to stick to him, activating the alarm that would tell the librarian as well as the rest of the school that someone was trying to sneak into the restricted section.

"There's only one maiden that's strong and skilled enough to break that spell without a second thought;" Suki had told them after they had discussed the situation. "The Ice Leader herself has decided to grace us with her presence. She must be getting desperate."

_"Desperate indeed."_ Botan thought as she walked through the crowded halls towards Professor McGonagall's class. It had been three weeks and the Leader still had not reappeared. However desperate she was she still seemed willing to wait however long it took to capture Suki and reverse the D'ta's genetic change.

Botan suddenly groaned as she remembered something else she needed to do. The students surrounding her gave her strange looks, but walked away quickly, not wanting to be associated with her outburst.

Suki's stupid homework! Ever since she'd gotten here she had been handing out papers and assignments almost every class. But even though the normal students had to wade through the class paperwork, Suki had overloaded Botan, Yusuke, and Kuwabara with rigorous assignments that would have killed their grades if this had actually been their school.

Botan started walking again, feeling like her head was about to explode. The next time she saw Koenma she was going to tell him she was taking her vacation. She needed a break.

*******

That evening after classes, Botan ran squealing into the Gryffindor common room where Yusuke, Kuwabara, and a few others sat doing homework. Everyone turned to look at her, but only Yusuke and Kuwabara did not look back at their work as she came to flop down next to them.

"What's with you?" Yusuke asked as Botan continued to giggle.

"We're having a party!" She cried happily throwing her arms up in the air not bothering to keep her voice down.

"We are?" Kuwabara sounded half asleep as he propped his head up on his hand so he could look at the joyous ferry girl.

"Yes!" Botan said excitedly. "Every Halloween they have a big party with some kind of show at the end. Oh isn't it wonderful? Finally there's something to look forward to! Oh I can't wait, something besides homework and reading and…"

The rest became too indecipherable as Botan began to bounce up and down on the floor. Yusuke and Kuwabara only nodded as they watched her freak out over a party before going back to their work.

*******

Botan bounced for the next week and a half. She never stopped even in class, although all her professors kept ordering her to stop, especially Suki whose temper seemed to be thinner then usual. She nearly screamed at Botan after the seventh time she asked her to sit still. She ended class early after that, saying that she did not feel well enough to continue. Botan said she felt sorry for the smallish woman and hoped she felt better soon. Then the blue haired woman bounced out of the room, her pony tail swinging out cheerily behind her.

The rest of the class followed her at a slower pace, filing out of the room eagerly, but steadily. Suki put her head down on her desk and waited for the majority of her class to leave.

"Mr. Potter?" She spoke silently, only moving her head enough for the young man to hear her. "I need to speak to you." She listened as the small shuffling noises stopped for a moment as Ms. Granger and Mr. Weasley forgot their bags and looked over at their friend. "That means the two of you need to leave." She told them, still keeping her head down.

Slowly, reluctantly, the two others left the room, dragging their feet the whole way.

"Make sure to close the door behind you." She told Ron, who hesitated, but eventually did as she asked.  
For a moment, Suki kept her head down, enjoying the silence. Children, it seemed, could not be quiet. It made Suki a little worried about her own children and future silence, but a small noise reminded her that Harry was still in the room.

Taking a deep breath, Suki sat up and gestured Harry to bring a chair forward and sit in front of her desk.

"I'm afraid that you are failing Mr. Potter." She told him trying to get through this as quickly as she could. "I want you to come in for tutorials in the evening, starting today. Are you free after dinner?" She asked sharply. She had not been feeling well even before Botan and her bouncing and the traces of the shadow demon's energy that clung to Harry were only making her feel worse. She could not wait until Hiei or one of the others got rid of the awful little splotch. Not only would it be kind to the poor young man the blot was terrorizing, but hopefully she would be able to make it through the day without needing an emergency rush to the bathroom. Then again it might not be the smudges of vile energy Harry had unwittingly left around the room.

Harry nodded dumbly, neither looking at her nor speaking.

Getting a bad feeling, Suki tried something else. "Or how about before breakfast, just a little after dawn?"

Harry only nodded again, as stoically as before.

"Oh, I know," Suki said wondering if the boy was listening at all, "we could get together at three in the morning to talk about why you're failing miserably and then talk for the rest of the time about pretty ponies that go clipity clop around fantasy land and eating clouds and singing happy little songs about sugar bunnies."

Harry started nodding again, but then he stopped, looking confused. "What?" He asked.

Suki let herself smile. "So there is a little life in you after all." She said, pleased that the Shade still had not completely subjugated Harry's will, otherwise the boy would have no chance of fighting back. Maybe she could help him with a few other things besides fill in the blank homework.

While Harry was still partially free from the Shade's dark influence by his shock at Suki's random statement, Suki leaned forward and grabbed Harry's hands in a steel-like grip, using the contact to send her energy beneath the cloak of the lower class demons energy. Harry startled, only recognizing that her hands where freezing.

Suki however, saw Harry's eyes clear for the first time and did her best to speak swiftly and clearly so that Harry would understand in a short amount of time; Suki would not be able to prevent the shadow demon from reasserting itself for long.

"Harry," Suki said softly, so he would have to listen hard to understand. "I understand that you don't feel like getting up out of bed in the morning, much less talking with your friends or going to classes, but you must try and resist the darker influence, understand? You must fight it off Harry Potter."

Harry stared at his teacher. Darker influence? How did she know that?

Her blue eyes bored into Harry as she waited for an answer. "O-okay." He said, not sure what else to say under such scrutiny.

But her eyes only turned to ice and she squeezed his hands harder. "You have to mean it Harry. You have to _want _to live."

Harry finally met his professor's ice blue eyes and was caught frozen by the intensity of her stare. The fierce clarity of her almost glare shook the remaining remnants of dark and depressing tangles from Harry's mind and for the first time since, oh lord it felt like years, Harry felt like himself again.

"_Do _you want to live Harry?" Suki asked a bit more uncertainty in her question.

"Yes." The word popped out of his mouth before he could think about it, so he thought about it after he spoke. "Yes I do want to live." He reaffirmed.

Suki skewered him with one bright blue eye, like a bird. "Then why have I only seen you mope about ever since I got here like some sort of melancholy ghost?"

"I-I-" Harry stuttered trying to think as he talked. "I don't know. Before I even came to school I've felt like I've been…stuck." He said trying to make himself as clear as possible.

"Do you feel free now?" She asked cutting him off before the shadow demon reasserted itself again, stealing away the boy's willingness to even listen.

Harry nodded.

"Then you must try to hold onto this feeling Mr. Potter. Cling to it as hard as you can."

But the shade was already wriggling under the Ice Maiden's hands and making cracks in her own energy that surrounded Harry. "But why?" He questioned, blinking as if he was honestly trying to remember the answer.

"Because we're going to help you Harry," Suki said tightening her grip on Harry's hands and sending out another blast of energy with her words so he could understand it better then the fact that gravity held you down, "you just have to hold on."

Harry nodded and Suki let go. Her hands hurt and she placed them palms together in front of her, hoping her naturally cold body temperature would help relieve some of the pain.

"Besides that," she added turning into his professor once more, "I'd like you to come by every other day after dinner." Harry nodded again, but Suki could see that his eyes were dull again, half shut and unblinking as he agreed. The shade had retaken control, numbing him like ice water.

Suki inclined her head and waved him away. "That is all. Good night Mr. Potter."

"Good night Professor." Harry mumbled as he stood then opened the door where Ron and Hermione were standing outside waiting for him.

Suki waited a few moments after they had closed the door just to make sure that no one else was going to come in. Then she slowly pulled her hands apart, and hissed at the red blisters hiding on her palms, fingers, and thumbs. No wonder her hands hurt as if she had just stuck them into boiling water.

She folded her hands back together and pushed herself up from her chair. It would take awhile for her hands to heal, longer then if she was trying to heal someone else. It was another of the D'ta's mysteries; why an Ice Maiden could heal others better then herself, but so far no one had come up with a sufficiently stable theory.

Suki did not try to touch the door knob; she just kicked the door three times and waited patiently for it to open. When it did she carefully slipped through the gap and pushed it closed with her foot.

*******

"What happened to your hands?"

Suki rolled her eyes and sighed at the annoying question.

"I burned myself, what does it look like?" She snapped at the poor ferry girl in front of her.

Botan looked shocked at the shorter woman's sudden temper. Suki took a deep breath to try and steady herself. "Sorry." She apologized. "You haven't been the first to ask that question today." No, the first had been Yukina when she had asked her to wrap her hands. She had lost track after Lavena, who she had seen in the library when she had gone to finish looking through her section of books. She expected Botan was number eight or nine and that by the end of the night the list would grow to fifty or sixty, what with the entire school coming to tonight's Halloween party.

She was actually on her way to the Great Hall for the feast when she ran into Botan, Kurama, and Lavena in the hallway. Since Lavena had already asked and Kurama had either heard or was smart enough not to ask, Botan was the one to ask the obvious question. Fortunately, whether it was because of her own distracted nature or Lavena's open curiosity about what surprise show the headmistress had scheduled for after dinner, Botan was soon sidetracked by her conversation with Lavena.

As the other girls talked, Suki dropped back to walk with Kurama. For a moment they walked in silence, listening to Lavena and Botan chatter happily.

"Have you heard from Hiei lately?" Suki eventually asked in a quiet voice. Much to everyone's surprise it only took a week for Koenma's answer to reach the castle, a remarkably short time considering Spirit World procedures. With the Spirit Prince's written permission, as well as a short explanation of what was going on, Hiei had left the next day to try and find the leaders of the various groups of magical creatures. The whole point in finding them was to try and convince them to meet with the Spirit Detectives so that Yusuke and the others could try and convince them to let them search the forest for the shade and, if they were lucky, the Ice Leader.

Unfortunately it seemed to be taking longer to find the leaders then any of them had expected and no one had heard from Hiei since the day he left, four days ago.

"No," Kurama said softly, "I'm sorry. I'm sure he's all right though; he is Hiei after all. Most likely the inhabitants of the Forbidden Forest are making him actually _work _to find them."

Suki grinned, picturing a very frustrated Hiei running among the foreign trees as the creatures hid either from fear or caution.

"Yes, you're probably right." Suki admitted, trying not to worry, especially pointlessly. Hiei was more than able to take on a Shade. She was a little more worried about the Ice Leader, but apparently she had disappeared…

Suki let herself be distracted by the floating Jack-O-Lanterns, live bats, humongous pumpkins, and other holiday decorations as a wave of noise from the student body swept out of the open Great Hall doors as she and the others rounded the corner into the Hall.

The smell on the other hand almost made her gag. It was not as if the food smelled bad, it just smelled. Suki assumed this was what normal people felt like when they were sick and whoever was helping them as holding soup under there nose, but since she had never actually been _sick_ before she did not really know.

"Suki are you okay?" Kurama's quiet voice made open her eyes. He, Lavena, and Botan were staring at her as well as a few of the students sitting nearby.

Suki pulled in a mouthful of air, refusing to use her nose. "Yeah," she lied feebly, hoping they would not notice. For the most part they did not, but Lavena, and probably Kurama although she could not see him, kept looking back at her as she coolly walked to her place at the head table.

Suki spent the rest of the meal talking with the professor next to her and ignoring her food. By the time everyone one else was finished eating though she did not feel much better and was sorely wishing she had not agreed to the demonstration Headmistress McGonagall had requested.

As if she had asked her too, the old woman stood up and addressed the student body. "For this evening's entertainment, Professor Suki D'ta has graciously offered to give us a demonstration, of some sort." She added the last part as she sat, as if she was unsure what was going to happen, even though she had asked Suki to do it in the first place.

Suki had composed herself somewhat while the Headmistress spoke but she still felt pale and slightly sick as she stood, nodded to the headmistress, and went to stand in front of the long table where the teachers sat.

She did not explain what she was going to show them. Instead she simply took her stance and summoned her energy.

Even in the back where she stood against the wall with Kuwabara, Yukina could feel the cold flow of air flash outward in a circular wave away from Suki's body.

Kuwabara leaned down to speak quietly to Yukina. "What's she doing?" He asked, showing genuine curiosity over what was going on.

Yukina smiled up at the human man; he was kind and open with her. She had come in as the Headmistress stood up and, not wanting to disturb anybody, she had stood rather than taken a seat. Kazuma had stood up and waved at her when he saw her, gesturing to his seat offering it to her, but she refused. She did not want to force him to stand. But instead of sitting back down, he had come back to stand with her.

"She is performing one of the basic defense moves that are only taught to the D'ta. It's one of their long term experiments." She informed him.

Icy mist now spread out from the small woman's body, billowing out in clouds that appeared to come from her feet. The students and faculty closer to her were starting to shiver as tiny ice droplets began to form, hanging in the air around her. Candlelight from the overhanging pumpkins hit the floating icy dew, spreading rainbows and colorful light in random and bedazzling patterns, earning a few gasps of awe from her audience, both professors and students alike.

But a sudden violent rumble elicited more gasps. Suki's eyes shot open as she tried to retain control over the frozen water surrounding her. Yusuke, Lavena, and Kurama shot to there feet along with a few confused others. Dread speared Kuwabara's gut and he shoved Yukina between him and the wall yelling, "Get down!"

For a moment, nothing happened.

Then a sudden viscous outburst sent the far wall exploding inward in a thousand chunks of stone and mortar. Most of the students screamed as pieces as big as themselves rocketed toward them. But even before the echoes of the roar had faded away, the staff and a majority of the older students, including Harry, Ron, Hermione, Neville, and Ginny, stopped the rocks in midair; freezing them before they crushed the students.

The rocks either dropped to the floor with loud echoing thuds or hung in the air like gray over-sized Christmas ornaments.

Nothing could be seen through the hole except the night's pitch blackness and everyone stood there, tense and confused.

Then the darkness began to writhe and wriggle, spreading like black ink across the stone floor.

"Don't let it touch you!" Harry cried as he stepped forward and fired a spell at the shadow.

And then all chaos broke loose.

* * *

I think it's a good ending; you only have a vague, adrenaline-rushed sense of what happens next. I'll try to be quicker about the next chapter. Please leave me a review. Please!


	10. Chapter 10: Party Crashers and Answers

Hi all. Here's chapter ten. Hope you like it and please review. Thanks, bye.

* * *

7th Year

Chapter Ten: Party Crashers and Answers

Suki ignored the screaming mass of students as she spun around; sharpening her frozen dew drops into lethal, icy darts, and then threw them with the force of her spin. They landed with an almost squishy sound in the Shade's undulating mass, but otherwise didn't appear to harm it.

Some of the smaller rocks made it through the teachers and older students' defenses, hitting students as well as the floor, causing damage either way.

"Get everyone out of here!" Suki yelled at Professor McGonagall behind her, snapping the older woman out of her shock. Gathering water from the air in a hurry Suki threw it out in front of her as a solid wall of ice just before a long, dark, liquid arm crashed into it. Large cracks spread out from the center of the Wraith's impact. The tentacle like arm writhed and wriggled trying to find a way past her barricade. In the time it took for Suki to shift her eyes to see two of the professors herding the majority of the student body out of the great hall doors, the Wraith's arm seeped through the broken ice, reaching for her neck.

Suki drew her arms together in front of her, sweeping along the sides of her shield shifting the ice together again, entrapping the arm. It stretched making itself skinnier to get closer to her, but she jumped back, somersaulting through the air to land on the far table. The table cloth slid under her feet and she slipped, landing with a clatter among the tableware. A badly placed flower arrangement knocked the wind out her and she lay there stunned.

Distant voices tried to break through the cotton that felt like it was surrounding her head.

"…Up! Get Up Suki! Get Up!" More then one voice called her name, screamed at her to get up, but she couldn't do it. Her whole body felt like it was made of the ice she had just used to defend herself. She couldn't move.

A chill suddenly ran down her spine, numbing her as it went. Why move? What was the point? Her powers didn't have any effect on the Wraith so why fight the inevitable?

Suki watched as a dense shadow swarmed over her body as well as her mind. It closed in, suffocating her, settling in against her skin freezing her even more.

A flash of light hit the blanket surrounding her and spread through it like fire. The Wraith shrieked and leapt back, pooling on the ground against the wall it hadn't busted through. Suki sucked in a deep breath of warm air, regaining feeling fast enough that her fingers and toes tingled.

The Wraith regrouped itself and hissed at her. Her mind still confused by the living shadow's sudden arrival and equally sudden departure, the Ice Maiden scrambled off the table top and nearly broke her nose as she managed to avoid the bench to crash onto the floor. Instead she banged her elbows on the stone floor and traded a bloody nose in for a couple of bad bruises.

Hands suddenly appeared lifting her up off the ground. Holding up most of her weight, Lavena pulled Suki across the floor, zigzagging across the floor to avoid the fallen stones, although it did have the added bonus of helping them avoid any attacks thrown at them by the shadow.

Lavena pulled the still stunned Ice Maiden down behind part of a broken table that had flipped over on its side. "Suki?" She asked looking around the edge of the table to make sure the others had the Wraith occupied. To her surprise Harry was the one pointing his wand at the Wraith's throat. Kind of anyway, Lavena wasn't sure if the thing had a throat at all.

The half demoness charged her energy anyway, just in case the inky bug escaped from the group of attackers surrounding it. "Suki are you okay? Are you hurt?"

Suki looked dazed and Lavena wasn't sure if the smaller woman was really focusing on her. "Y-yes I'm fine. I'm not hurt."

Lavena wasn't sure if she believed her either, but before she could come to a decision Yukina dropped down behind her long time friend and asked the same thing. She didn't wait for Suki to answer though and instead cupped her face to make her look at her. Yukina lifted Suki's eyelids and checked her bones and pulse, giving a much more thorough examination then Lavena ever could have.

"We need to get her out of here before the Shade tries to attack her again." A quiet authority entered Yukina's voice as she spoke of her friend's safety.

Lavena nodded. "Right but should we go-"

A loud hiss coupled with a crackling boom shook what remained of the furniture and decorations. Lavena chanced another look beyond the table the three of them hid behind. The Wraith had transformed from a smooth blob of inky substance into a hard spiked ball. The spikes shot out of the shade's main body toward its attackers and if they missed they turned supple enough to whip around and stab them from behind. A small lump pulled itself apart from the main body and twisted this way and that, like a head looking for something.

Somehow it spied Lavena peering around the corner and shriek-hissed. The part fox demon ducked back around the table and met Yukina's wide worried eyes. "You go first. I'll get Suki." Lavena snapped a she hurriedly picked up the still dazed Suki.

Yukina nodded and dashed for the door without a second thought. Lavena scooped the smaller woman close hoping she wouldn't drop her in what she was sure would be a mad dash to the doors. She took one more look around the table edge making sure the shade wasn't two feet from her nose, before copying Yukina and running across the rubble strewn floor.

One sharp pain later Lavena found herself strewn across the floor, Suki half on top of her. She must have tripped on a piece of the rubble, specially since her toe hurt like the time Yusuke had ridden over her foot with his bike.

She looked up in time to see the Wraith ram half the people attacking it to the ground before skidding across the floor towards her and Suki.

Lavena tried to get her feet under her, but Suki shrieked and flopped over, trapping her feet and then falling on Lavena when her own legs wouldn't hold her.

The Wraith raced forward, sliding and pooling across the floor like oil running down hill. It hissed and spitted like some kind of sick feline and as it drew closer Lavena heard words in the angry noises.

"Come here Maiden-mine," It whispered to itself Lavena was sure, "I trade you for cloak and I trade cloak for life. All that's left is you and I can finish my Master's work. So come now. Come, come."

It sprung forward looking to swallow both Suki and Lavena with its writhing mass. Lavena couldn't move. The Master's name was enough to freeze her in terror. Even after all this time, nothing but that simple word made her feel like the tall, thin man with glasses dressed in clean, simple clothes that would never attract any attention was standing right next to her. The shade that possessed him and had controlled the man's every movement for more then Lavena would ever like to know, hovered just under his skin, his darkness hooked soul deep into the man.

He took a step forward ready to suck the very life out of a fifteen year old girl.

Lavena screamed throwing out her arms to protect her face. But she wasn't as helpless as she had been then and she threw an almost glittering shield out in front of her and Suki. She still had some of the power leftover from the ultimate being or celestial organism or whatever it was that Kiran called herself nowadays and it obliterated every piece of darkness that tried to ram through it like it had rammed the simpler circle of attackers just moments before.

The Wraith screamed when it touched the glittering shield. A horrible, ear shattering noise that had Lavena and Suki clawing at their ears trying to block out the clamor. The Wraith straggled and struggled, flailing in its attempt to escape. Another blast of white fire shot forth from Harry's wand and hit the shade that had passively tortured him over the past months. The vile creature shrieked again, but found his feet, er, tentacles and scuttled as fast as he could manage out the hole he had left in the wall. Several students as well as Yusuke and Kuwabara followed it, leaping over fallen stone and broken tables.

"Stop!" Professor McGonagall ordered from the main doors, wand out, several other professors behind her. The students froze, but Yusuke and Kuwabara didn't acknowledge her presence and darted through the jagged hole and into the forest the shade.

"Are you alright?" A soft and incredibly welcome voice asked Lavena while the steel haired headmistress demanded that her foreign exchange students "Get back here!"

Lavena looked over into the concerned eyes of her husband. "Fine, yeah. Suki-"

"Is fine as well." The other woman interrupted before Lavena could finish.

Both Kurama and Lavena looked at her worriedly. "Are you sure?" Lavena finally asked. "You hit the table and the floor pretty hard."

"I'm fine. I only collected a few bruises." Suki insisted although neither of the two missed the slight wince when she struggled to sit up, or how her hand went to her stomach where her children lived. "Although I wouldn't object to any help offered getting up."

Kurama offered her a hand and pulled her up before doing the same for Lavena. But instead of letting go, he pulled Lavena into a comforting hug. She managed to wrap her arms around his neck before her knees gave out.

She _hated_ those god-forsaken life stealing blobs.

Teachers were swarming the area trying to clear the floor by the time her legs quit quivering like piles of jell-o. She dried her eyes and glared at the far wall where the Wraith had tried to possess Suki. "They're not going to get what they want." She said angrily. "Not this time. Not ever again."

Kurama saw the hard look in Lavena's hazel eyes and nodded. "But why would the Wraith be after Suki? I would've expected it to go after Potter."

"Maybe we should wait to discuss this in private with the others." Lavena suggested tearing her scowl away from the place where the Shade had stood. She took a deep breath and gave Kurama a softer look. "I bet they're all with Suki in the Infirmary." She offered. Kurama took her hand and gently pulled her to the door.

"I'm sure I have said something like this before," Kurama said once they had reached the quiet and relatively safe hallways. Lavena spared a thought that everyone else must have gone to bed. "But without being able to reach your energy there wasn't a way you could've stopped the Master," he held her hand tightly when she cringed at the name, "from dragging Karin out of you and shoving her into the containment case. It was not your fault."

Lavena knew she had heard that part before.

When she didn't say anything, Kurama stepped to the side of the Infirmary doors, pulling his wife to him.

"Kurama what-?"

"You did everything you could." He said firmly.

"But-" She started.

"Not likely."

"And-"

"Wasn't possible at the time."

"Well what about-"

"You couldn't reach your energy remember?" He reminded her smiling crookedly. Lavena crossly pouted a little. She didn't like being reminded that one, she was wrong, and two, that she really had done everything in her power at the time, which wasn't all that much considering.

Kurama pulled her closer and Lavena was lost in the bright green of his eyes. She had always loved his eyes even though when she first met him she probably would have denied it. She loved his kisses too, but those were a different story.

"Hey!"

Both foxes jumped like the first time Lavena's mother had caught them, uh, kissing outside Lavena's apartment door. Except this time it was Yusuke who stood hanging outside the Infirmary door grinning brashly at them.

He watched his two friends turn red then jerked his thumb inside. "We're all here if you're ready to join us."

Kurama managed to smile a little as he led Lavena into the room. Yusuke, smirking, closed the door behind them.

It was fairly quiet inside the large hall. Which kind of surprised Lavena considering it looked like half the student population inhabited the cots. Lavena suddenly felt the urge to tiptoe past the sleeping students after Yusuke who headed towards the far end of the hall. Looking around it didn't appear that many of the children suffered from serious injuries or life threatening ones anyway. Most of the sleeping students she passed wore bandages, clean or otherwise, from where the wall had exploded on them.

Near the end of the hall there was a patch of empty beds. By then Lavena could hear the hushed arguing coming from behind a heavy curtain someone had hung for privacy and could guess why they were empty.

Yusuke found a gap in the curtain and ducked through, waiting for Kurama and Lavena before letting the heavy cloth fall back.

"I'm telling you I'm fine." Suki kept insisting. She sat upright on the small bed arguing with Yukina who, for all her usual calm and sweetness, was giving her friend a stern look as she tried to climb out of the small hospital cot. Suki was trying to ignore her and was sitting up anyway.

When Suki finally got her feet on the floor though, she listed to the side, her hand flying to her head.

"Suki," Yukina pleaded as she steadied her patient. "You need to rest. You fell off a table and the Wraith nearly smothered you. Now please lay down now."

Steel entered Suki's spine and she brushed off Yukina's grasp and stood on her own power. She faltered the tiniest bit, but didn't fall. "I'm fine Yukina. It's just a side effect of the Wraith's influence. I'm going to go to my room and then I'll rest. Goodnight everybody." Suki left without looking back, ignoring anyone who tried to convince her to act otherwise.

Yukina's pale face fell as she sat down dejectedly on the bed Suki had just vacated. Kuwabara put a comforting hand on her shoulder. He didn't like to see her sad.

"Don't worry. I'm sure she's fine."

Yukina nodded. "Yes, but she's also so stubborn. She won't ask for help even if she needs it badly." Yukina said in a quiet voice.

"Whoa," Kuwabara said, "sounds like Hiei. Well, except she's a she and she talks more and she's nicer."

It worked. Yukina laughed, however weakly. "Thank you Kazuma." She said in a quiet voice that he thought only he could hear. Kuwabara just smiled sheepishly.

"I take it you lost him?" Kurama spoke up from his place near Lavena.

Kuwabara looked up as Yusuke answer. "Yeah, the little beast got away in the Forest. There are so may shadows in there it must be like a family reunion to him."

"Were you able to tell Hiei about what happened?" Kurama asked.

"Naw," Yusuke said as he leaned against the wall behind him and scratched his head. "We couldn't find him. I tried to track his spirit energy but I think he was much deeper in the forest then we were. Maybe he finally found the centaurs Botan told us about."

Kurama shook his head. "No, they don't live that deep in the forest as that. Hiei must've found one of the nastier inhabitants."

It was silent for a moment, with the only sound coming from one of the sleeping students as he began to snore.

"The thing knew the Master." Lavena suddenly spoke up. All heads turned towards her but she didn't look up from the floor. "The slime said he would trade Suki for some cloak so he could 'finish his Master's work'."

A new, dread ridden silence stretched out even longer then the first. The Master's terror hovered over them; a formless cloud that hung heavy in the air between them.

Kurama took Lavena's hand when she began to shiver as if she was freezing all over. "He won't win." He reminded her and she nodded sharply, a granite hard determination in her eyes.

"At least now we know what the Wraith wants." Kuwabara thought out loud.

"But why?" Kurama wondered. "How does kidnapping Suki help it get this cloak?"

"Why would a blob like that even want a cloak?" Botan asked.

Yusuke snorted. "Even blobs need to keep up with the latest fashion Botan."

Botan rolled her eyes and only Kurama's grip on Lavena's hand kept her from reaching out and cuffing him upside the head.

"It's Harry's Invisibility Cloak idiot. He wants the cloak in exchange for Suki."

"Well who's he gonna exchange her _with_? Huh? Have you figured that out too?" Yusuke sassed, annoyed at Lavena's name calling.

Lavena rolled her eyes while, surprisingly enough, Yukina answered. "It's the Ice Leader. No one wants Suki as bad as she does. She must want her very badly if she's willing to speak with such lowly demons."

Kurama nodded. "It does make sense. The Ice Leader wants Suki to reverse the biological changes the D'ta made. The Wraith wants Harry Potter's cloak of invisibility along with the other Hallows to complete the Master's super race."

Lavena nodded as her husband spoke, picturing the Master's desired end in her mind. The three worlds in ruins. Humans and demons alike trampled under the Master's super race. Creatures that answered to no one apart from their now deceased Master roamed the world, stirring up dry dust and the bones of buildings behind them.

They couldn't let that happen.

********

They broke up shortly after that, going to their separate rooms to sleep. The next morning Harry, who had no idea that a small moving blot was trying to get his tentacles on his invisibility cloak so it could take over the world with a new horrid super race, was on his way to the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom for his tutoring with Suki.

He felt a little more like his old self this morning and, like the rest of the school including most of the teachers, he was wondering what that _thing_ from the Halloween party had been. But unlike the other students, he recognized it. Not by its features, because honestly it really didn't have any features, but by the dark and harmful quality that had hung around it. He had felt that oppressive atmosphere several times before, some worse then others. Like when Lavena had found him on the floor. It had been that same awful, unending, loneliness that had frozen him into numbness until he was little more then a living doll on several previous occasions.

But what in the world had it been?

That was the questions on everybody's mind and Harry knew the answer as much as they did.

He was thinking about asking Ron and Hermione to help him find the answer as he walked into the classroom.

He didn't see Suki there, which surprised him just a little. At all of the previous sessions she had arrived first, apparently she was an early riser. He had just taken a seat when he heard a low, painful whimper.

Wondering if someone's cat had escaped from its home, Harry peered around the professor's desk to see what was making the noise.

Suki lay collapsed on the floor.

Harry rushed forward and for a moment thought that the evil black smear had returned and gone after his teacher. But he didn't see anyone or anything near by.

"Professor, are you alright?" He asked worriedly.

She didn't look like she was alright. She was paler then usual and her face was covered with a light sheen of sweat. Her eyes were clouded with pain and her arms were wrapped around her middle.

"Get Yukina." She told him quietly.

"But-" He started, not wanting to leave her alone when she was hurt.

"Now." She ordered in a strong voice mixed with hurt.

With an unsure look at the small woman, he got up and ran out of the room and pelted down the hallway towards the infirmary.


End file.
